Chick Like Me
by balthezarian
Summary: An extremely poorly timed wish has everyone learning new things!
1. Chapter 1

"I don't think this is a good idea."

Goten looked up at his best friend, a little surprised at the comment. "Trunks, I thought _I_ was the one who was supposed to say that."

The young prince rolled his eyes. "That's because I'm usually the one with a crazy idea talking _you_ into doing something stupid. This might actually be the first time you've talked _me_ into it."

"You didn't think it was a bad idea when I told you about it!" the eight year old defended.

"Oh, sure I did," his elder friend casually responded with a shrug. "I was just bored, so I figured it would at least be fun to get in a little trouble with you."

Goten huffed and pushed his best friend in the shoulder. "Well, why didn't you tell me that you thought it was a bad idea?"

"I told you," Trunks responded, "I was bored."

The younger boy grumbled and shifted the backpack on his back. "You know, you're a lot less fun when I'm the one with the crazy idea."

"Duly noted."

Once again, the younger of the pair huffed. "Can you just tell me where the next one is?"

Trunks chuckled as he clicked on the radar. "Sure thing," he answered. "Let me see here…according to this thing, the next dragon ball is about a hundred miles…" He studied the small machine carefully before raising his hand and pointing to the east. "Thataway!"

As the two boys took off once more, Goten began to look a little worried. "Trunks?"

"Hn?"

"Why do you think that this is a bad idea?"

Trunks shrugged, adjusting his own backpack as he flew. Balancing three dragon balls on his back was a lot harder than he thought it would be. "Look, we're gathering mystical, powerful balls that have the power to grant any wish you can think of, and we're doing it behind the grown-ups backs. Plus, they were used six months ago, so if we blow it, we can't undo it for another six months. Do you have any idea how many ways this can go wrong?"

Goten pondered that statement for a moment. "Um, a lot?"

"Yes, a lot," Trunks affirmed. "You don't even know what you want to wish for yet, so to be honest, I'm not entirely sure why we're doing this in the first place."

The younger boy looked like his lower lip would start quivering any second. "But…but why didn't you say any of this before we had six of the dragon balls?"

"I say again, I was bored. Plus, you didn't ask."

"Well, I didn't ask if you thought this was a good idea five minutes ago!" Goten countered.

"True," Trunks agreed, "but we've hit that point where the part of my brain that says this is a bad idea is being a lot louder than that part of my brain that thinks this is fun." However, in spite of Trunks' mild protesting, they did not slow down.

A few minutes passed in silence before Goten decreed, "I'm gonna come up with a good thing to wish for."

"I know."

"A really, really, really good wish," Goten went on.

"Absolutely," Trunks agreed. "It'll be fantastic."

A few more minutes passed before Goten reaffirmed, "It'll be the best wish ever."

Trunks rolled his eyes. "Yes, Goten, I'm sure it'll be a great wish, but could you stop telling me that it's going to be a great wish and come up with whatever it is you're going to wish for? We're only, like, five minutes away from the last dragon ball."

Yet another moment of silence followed. After several minutes of quiet time, Goten cleared his throat for a question. "Hey, Trunks?"

"Hn?"

"Do you think Krillen knows we're missing yet?"

Trunks sighed as he landed, and he studied the radar in his hands with a careful eye. "Of course he knows we're gone by now, Goten. We've been gone for four hours. Now, I think that in order to get that last ball, we have to go…"

"But if he knows we're gone," Goten interrupted, "how come we haven't been caught yet?"

The little prince took a deep breath and forced himself to not smack his best friend across the back of the head. "Goten, we have not been _caught_ caught yet is because Krillen offered to watch us as our moms, his wife, and Videl went shopping while our dads and your brother spar."

"So?"

"So, in order to report us missing," Trunks patiently went on, "he would have to admit that he lost us to either your mom or my dad."

"And?"

Trunks could feel his patience draining fast. "And," he grit out, "no one in their right mind would want to tell your mom or my dad something they did not want to hear because they are the two scariest people in the frickin' world, and Krillen's just not that desperate. Now, would you just shut up for long enough for us to find that last ball before we're reported missing? We'll only have, like thirty seconds after Krillen makes that call. Your dad does teleport, you know."

"Oh," Goten responded, seemingly appeased, "okay."

The elder of the pair had to suppress the urge to say something snarky. With a little luck, they could just pick up that last dragon ball, make a nice, safe wish, and get back before Krillen got desperate enough to narc on them. "This way to the dragon ball," he guided.

Goten nodded as he followed his best friend. "You know, I think I want to use my wish on you."

That caught the little prince off guard. "What?" the nine year old asked.

"Well, I've been thinking about it," the little boy explained, "and what I really want is to be your best friend, and I'm already your best friend, so I'll use my wish on you."

Trunks rolled his eyes. "Don't waste your wish," he huffed. "There's nothing I don't either have or could get on my own."

Goten looked thoughtful. "Are you sure there's nothing that you want?"

"Goten, I have my family, a giant house, awesome toys, and enough money to buy anything new I could possibly want," Trunks pointed out. "There's no reason for me to use that wish at all. Seriously, use it for yourself."

"But I don't know what I want," Goten pouted.

"Well," Trunks grunted, reaching into an animal burrow for their prize, "I suggest that you think of what you want soon, because I think I just found the seventh ball." With another little grunt, the purple haired boy got back up to his feet and smiled. "There we go!" he proudly announced. "That's the seventh one!"

Goten jumped up and down and clapped. "Oh, goody!" he exclaimed. "Now I can make my wish!"

"Yeah," Trunks laughed, "the wish you haven't decided on yet."

The boys emptied out their backpacks and watched in awe as the magical orbs began to glow. "This is so cool," Goten giggled. "Okay, you summon the dragon, and I'll make my wish!"

Trunks chuckled as he brought his hands over the balls. "Let's see if I can remember how to do this…"

/

"Focus, you idiot!" Vegeta snapped at Gohan.

The teenager grunted as he took the prince's fist to his midsection. He was having an extremely hard time keeping his head in the fight, and he had the bruises to show for it. "Sorry," he huffed, trying to recover.

"Sorry?" Vegeta sneered, taking a swing at Goku. "You let your guard down for no apparent reason! If you're dumb enough to do that in battle, you're going to get yourself killed!"

"Oh, go easy on the poor kid," Goku grunted, barely able to stop Vegeta's fist. "He's just getting cold feet, that's all."

Gohan pouted as he tried to reenter the fight. "I do not have cold feet!"

Vegeta ducked under Gohan's kick and swiped out his knees, sending the boy to the ground. "You're afraid to talk to your woman," he contradicted.

"I am not!"

"Gohan, it's okay!" Goku responded with a chuckle, knocking his son off balance. "There's nothing wrong with being nervous about the first time you…"

"DAD!" Gohan protested, turning bright red and backing away from the fray. "We're not doing…that…"

Goku dropped his arms and looked at his son, clearly puzzled. "You're not?" he asked. "Then what are you nervous about?"

"Hey!" Vegeta shouted, throwing his arms up in frustration. "I thought we were fighting here!"

Goku scratched his head. "We'll get back to that," he assured, "but really, Gohan, I thought that you and Videl were getting ready to…"

"DAD!"

/

As the young prince began to utter the magic words, a telltale energy signal caught up to the wayward boys. "There you two are!" Krillen panted, landing hard beside the boys.

Both of them yelped as they realized they had been caught, red handed. "It's not what it looks like!" Trunks protested.

"Oh, really?" Krillen gasped. "Because to me, it looks like you two little hoodlums ran away from me while I was supposed to be watching you. And is it just me, or is there an enormous magical dragon hovering behind you?"

Goten dug his toe into the dirt. "Um, it's just you?"

Shaking his head in frustration, Krillen pulled out his cell phone. "You know, I've been putting this off for over four hours, but enough is enough, boys. I'm calling your parents."

"NO!" they cried in unison.

"Yes," Krillen calmly said, opening up the phone. "You guys ran away from me. You hunted down the dragon balls, even though you have been directly told not to do that. You have no idea how much danger you could have been in, and your parents need to know."

"Oh, come on!" Trunks protested. "How the heck much danger could Goten and I possibly be in? The only things on the planet that are stronger than us are people we share DNA with! No one on this planet can hurt us except the ones that you're calling!"

"Trunks…" Krillen tried to respond, pressing the auto dial for Bulma's cell phone.

"And they're going to _murder_ us!"

Goten suddenly turned completely white. "They're gonna _what_?" With terror in his eyes, the little boy did the only thing he could think of: he lunged for the phone.

"Hey!" Krillen yelped, trying to avoid being tackled. The phone dropped from his hand and flipped on the ground.

"You can't let them kill us!" Goten begged. "I'm too young to die!"

/

Bulma giggled as she guided the hover car through the air. "Oh, man, we really needed this today."

"Agreed," Chi-Chi responded with a happy sigh. "Don't misunderstand, I love taking care of my family, but every great once in a while I really need to just get out for a girls day. There's just too much testosterone in that house sometimes."

A subtle ring was heard, and Bulma rolled her eyes. "Videl, honey, if you could push that button on the console with the…"

"Yeah," Videl grunted, stretching to reach it, "I know the one."

As the youngest of the group was setting up the car phone to intercept the call, Bulma looked over at the brunette mother beside her. "I totally get where you're coming from, Chich," she agreed. "It's always training and fighting and eating more food than I think the planet can keep up with. And any time I try to get in on it, they both treat me like I'm not supposed to be there at all. Sometimes I get the feeling Trunks and Vegeta want to put up a sign that says 'No Girls Allowed'."

"At least you have the lab," Chi-Chi countered. "You can run away for a little while if you want to."

"See, this is why you two should have been smart like me and had daughters," Eighteen responded from the back with a smirk.

From beside the blonde, Videl smiled. "Hey, I think I got it!"

/

"Goten, it's a figure of speech!" Trunks yelled, restraining his friend. "They are not actually going to kill us!"

Goten shifted his weight in an attempt to see his friend. "What?" he asked.

"_Hey, I think I got it!_"

"Wait, what was that?" Krillen asked. "Where's the phone?"

/

"I think I got the phone connection set up," Videl told the driver.

Chi-Chi sighed as she leaned back and closed her eyes. "You know, sometimes I wish our guys could understand what it's like to be like us."

/

"_I think I got the phone connection set up."_

"Was that Videl?" Goten asked.

Trunks looked at the fallen cell phone. "I guess we accidentally put the speaker phone on."

"_You know, sometimes I wish our guys could understand what it's like to be like us."_

All three pairs of eyes grew wide. "Oh, no," Krillen whispered.

"No, no, _no, NO!"_ Trunks shouted as a brilliant flash of light formed.

"_Trunks, honey?"_ Bulma's voice called out over the phone. _"What's wrong?"_

As the light died down, Trunks quickly examined his body. "Oh, thank Dende I'm okay," he sighed.

"_Trunks, what is going on there?"_

"What the hell did you two do?" a high, feminine voice called out.

Trunks quickly picked up Krillen's cell phone and set the speaker to its standard setting. "Um, can't talk now, Mom. Things to do. See you at home! Love you! Bye!" As quickly as he could, the boy hung up on his mother and turned to the baby-sitter.

He could not believe his eyes.

"We are so dead…"

/

Note: Yes, I know that fun with genders has been done before, but I'm hoping to take this idea for a new spin. Ah, the joys of the mistimed wish…


	2. Chapter 2

Trunks could feel the sweat forming on the palms of his hands as he gazed at his baby sitter. Beside him stood Goten, who was staring with wider eyes than he had ever had before. They were utterly stunned.

"Oh, holy crap," Trunks muttered, surveying the damage.

Krillen stood before them, horrified as she looked upon her new body. Her height had not seemed to change, but everything else seemed to be at least slightly different. Through the baggy clothing, all three of them could tell that Krillen's waist was tapered and that there were, in fact, bosoms under the shirt. Her once rough, callused hands were smooth and tapered, and her shoes suddenly felt as though they were a couple sizes too big.

"What the hell did you do to me?" she screeched.

The two boys cringed at the voice. "Well, technically, we're not the ones that made the wish," Trunks feebly defended.

Krillen glared at the children. "And what, exactly, was the wish you two didn't make?"

Goten continued to gape at the woman, but Trunks forced his brain to kick back in. "Um, I think Auntie Chi-Chi said something about wishing that the guys knew what it was like to be like the girls…"

Krillen's cheeks turned bright red as a thought crossed her mind. "I'm gonna be a chick for a year!" she cried out.

Trunks and Goten both looked startled by that statement. "Wait," Goten quietly wondered, "don't the dragon balls recharge after six months?"

"No!" Krillen wailed. "They take a whole year!"

"But we made a wish six months ago!" Trunks protested.

The tiny woman shook her head. "They were already at half power when you used them," she pointed out, attempting to regain her composure. "You can get away with it if you only use one wish when they're fully restored. But they have no power left! They need to fully charge again before another wish can be made, and that'll take a whole year!"

"But if you could use them at half power now," Trunks reasoned, "then why can't we use them when they're half charged in six months?"

Krillen paused her tirade, seriously considering the question. "You know, I don't know why they don't work that way," she sincerely said. "But they don't. You can take it up with Dende. _After_ we tell your parents what you did!"

All of the color immediately drained from Trunks' face as a realization hit him. "Oh, crap, my parents…"

While Goten seemed to miss out on what Trunks was saying, Krillen read him loud and clear. Slowly, the little woman pat the little prince on the shoulder. "Call your mom," she softly said. "Maybe she can keep him from killing you…"

Trunks gulped and looked down at the cell phone in his sweaty hand. It had not been his idea to get the dragon balls, and it was not his wish that caused the problem. However, he understood that he still had to face the music of his decisions.

He knew that getting the dragon balls had been a mistake. In fact, he had even told Goten that he thought that they should stop. But in the end, he had done nothing to stop it. Hell, he had even been the one to summon the dragon, because Goten was not sure how. And because of that, he was going to get blamed.

For once in his life, though, Trunks believed that he deserved whatever punishment his parents gave him.

And that scared him, because his parents were not going to be easy on him for his crime.

With nervous, sweaty fingers, young Trunks dialed his mother's number. As he listened to the ring tone sound, all he could do was pray that she would have mercy on him.

/

"I'd bet even money that I'm going to be killing my son this afternoon," Bulma grumbled, steering the air car closer to the Son home.

Beside her, Chi-Chi pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. "And if yours is doing something stupid, mine's probably right there with him."

Bulma huffed, keeping her eyes firmly on the road. "I swear, they're both just like their fathers. Keep them on their own, and they're usually pretty good. Put the two of them in the same room with each other, and their ability to reason just flies out the window and chaos ensues."

"But keep them apart for too long and it's worse than putting them together," Chi-Chi finished with a sigh. "It must be a Saiyan thing."

"No," Eighteen coolly replied from the back seat, "it's a _guy_ thing. Krillen's just as bad as your two are."

The two women up front balked at the concept. "You can't seriously mean to tell me that sweet little Krillen gets _nearly_ as wound up around the other guys as our guys do."

"Only because there's a power difference," the blonde countered. "If he stood a ghost of a chance in a spar, he'd be running off with your two idiots all the time."

Videl giggled. "See, Gohan's the total opposite of that," she pointed out. "He's actually got a very free spirit, but when he's near the other guys, he seems to just clam up. I think they intimidate him."

"Vegeta? Intimidating?" Bulma responded with an extremely sarcastic tone. "I'm shocked!"

As the ladies got out a good laugh, the phone rang again. "Could one of you do the honors?" Bulma asked.

As Videl reached forward, Chi-Chi waived her off. "I know what needs to be done now," she almost sternly said. "You just sit back and let me take care of it." The raven haired mother quickly got everything done, and the connection was made.

"Hello?" Bulma called out.

"_Mom?"_

The driver rolled her eyes. "No, it's the boogie man," she responded. "Of course it's me, Trunks! Now, be a good little boy and tell Mommy what you did wrong so she knows why you hung up on her five minutes ago."

On the line, the women could hear the sound of Trunks swallowing hard. They all exchanged wary glances, wondering what exactly the boys had gotten into this time.

"_Well, here's the thing…"_

Another bout of silence came, followed by what sounded like a female voice telling Trunks to suck it up and admit something. "Trunks?" Bulma asked, suddenly very concerned. "Honey, who is with you right now?"

"_Goten and Krillen."_

"Trunks, we all heard a woman's voice," Chi-Chi responded sternly. "Now tell us who is with you?"

Another swallow passed over the line. _"I swear, it's Goten and Krillen._"

Bulma found her temper running out with her son very quickly. "Trunks Briefs, if you do not tell me right now who is with you, you will be grounded for two weeks longer than your sentenced time for whatever the hell it is you're not confessing to!"

"_Mom, I am trying to confess! Goten and I got the dragon balls, Krillen found us, he tried to call you, Goten got nervous and knocked his phone out of his hand, and just as the dragon popped up, Auntie Chi-Chi said…_"

"That sometimes I wish our guys could understand what it's like to be like us," Chi-Chi whispered. "Oh, Kami, you're not telling me that…"

"_The woman you heard was Krillen,_" Trunks finished up.

"WHAT?" Eighteen roared from the back seat of the car.

Videl sat bold upright, gripping Chi-Chi's seat with both of her hands. "Aren't the guys supposed to be sparring a few miles from here?" she urgently asked.

Up in the front, Chi-Chi was turning red with anger and Bulma's knuckles were whitening against the steering wheel. "Oh, you are so dead for this one, mister," she growled. "Here's what's going to happen: I am going to hang up my phone. You, Goten, and Krillen are going to go straight to the Son house. I am on my way right now to pick up Goku, Gohan, and your father. We will meet at the Son house ASAP. Then your father is going to murder you. Do you understand me?"

"_Yes, Ma'am,"_ came the very obedient reply. Chi-Chi, using what little restraint she had left, turned off the phone.

Absolutely seething, Bulma's grip got even tighter on the steering wheel as she slightly changed course. The car ride remained silent as the four women aimed for the three sparring partners. No one seemed to know what to say.

/

Goku jumped up and down, staring in awe. "This is so weird!"

Gohan turned bright red and turned away. "Dad, for the last time, please stop doing that!"

"Kakarot, stop jumping around!" Vegeta barked.

"Seriously, look at them when I do this!" Goku insisted, continuing to bounce.

With a snarl, Vegeta glared at the younger fighter. "Kakarot, if you don't stop playing with your tits right now, I am going to punch you in the head!"

Goku just chuckled. "No you won't!" she giggled. "You can't hit me sitting like that!"

Vegeta harrumphed, but she knew that Kakarot had her. Unlike the brain damaged fighter, Vegeta was not willing to display her brand new body to the world, and her shirt had long been shredded in the fight. As such, she sat against a tree, keeping her loose pants from falling off, with her arms crossed over her own ample bosom.

Meanwhile, Gohan sat on the ground, fiddling with the remains of her own shirt. His gi had never covered a lot of chest anyway, but at least his belt was cinchable, allowing the pants to stay put. However, her attempt to make her top modest did not seem to be working.

Not fifteen minutes earlier, the three had been just above the ground, engaged in the tail end of a spar. Gohan had been trying to hit Vegeta while blocking a kick from Goku, who was defending himself from a swing from Vegeta. All three of them had been in perfect symmetry of motion when they felt their bodies seize with the power of the wish.

They had hit the ground hard as their bodies had changed, and their first moments after the transformation just to figure out why they had the sudden loss of altitude. It was Vegeta who had first noticed the serious anomaly among them and let out a blood curdling scream. Gohan realized the problem a second later and immediately began to hyperventilate, barely able to stammer out broken questions between gasps of air. Goku simply sat up with a confused look on her face.

The following minutes had been filled with screaming, anxiety, and oaths to destroy the responsible party as quickly as possible. It also included the realization without a sash, Vegeta's pants were not going to stay up, and that while Goku did not seem to mind being topless, the other two clearly did.

As Gohan and Vegeta sat there, silently assessing the situation, Goku continued to explore her new body. "You know, as cool as these are, they kinda hurt when I jump."

"Then the obvious solution, you moron, is to stop jumping!" Vegeta snapped.

Goku gave a half shrug in agreement and began running her fingers through her hair. "This is so weird, having hair that actually, well, _moves_! Mine's never really done that before!"

"Dad, don't you think we have more important things to be talking about right now than what your hair is like?" Gohan softly pleaded. The entire experience was still making her breathing hard and erratic from anxiety.

"Well, what's there to talk about?" Goku reasoned. "We suddenly became girls, it's probably caused by a wish, and we have to either wait a year or get to New Namek in order to change back. I think that sums it up pretty well!"

Vegeta glared angrily at the younger woman. "You're leaving out one vital detail, dumbass," she bit out. "We're not just women, we're _human_!"

Gohan continued to try to cover herself, muttering the information she had to herself. "No clothes, no power, no flying, no way to get home, we need to tell Mom, Videl, and Bulma…we need to find out what the wish was…who made it? Who would wish for this?"

"I'd say the woman did if it weren't for the fact there's something she is _definitely_ not willing to give up for a full year," Vegeta growled. Her eyes suddenly grew wide as she wondered just how that particular pastime was going to be accomplished for the next three hundred and sixty five days.

"You know me well."

The three fighters whipped around, startled by the voice behind them. "Woman!" Vegeta called out.

As the four woman emerged from the woods, they found themselves rendered speechless by the sight before them. Gohan was sitting in the grass, her hands desperately trying to pull her gi top together. Her short hair looked a lot like Videl's, but her bangs were much shorter. Goku was standing next to her, waving, completely topless and unashamed. Her black hair hung around her shoulders, and her gi pants were so long on her that her bare feet were hidden. Vegeta was leaning against a tree, her legs straight and crossed at the ankle, and her arms still fiercely covering her breasts. Her hair, long enough to reach just below her shoulder blades, had all been pulled forward in an attempt to help with her modesty.

"Holy shit," Bulma whispered.

Vegeta's eyes narrowed at Bulma. "Woman, you spent all day shopping, so I know you have to have _something_ in there that would qualify as clothing. Go bring me some."

Bulma's cheeks reddened slightly at the tone used. "Listen, missy," she quickly retaliated, "first of all, you're just as woman as I am now, so there's no reason for you to call me by my gender anymore. And second of all, what the hell makes you think you can boss me around like that?"

"Your gender has not changed, so there is no reason for your nickname to change," Vegeta hissed. "And I don't know if you noticed, but I am not exactly in a position to go fetch them on my own."

The heiress studied her lover and had to agree, at least with the second half. "Yeah, let me see what I can find…"

As she began to work her way back to where they had managed to park the car, Bulma shook her head. It was going to be a long, long year.


	3. Chapter 3

Trunks sat on the Son's couch, his face well buried in his hands. "Oh, this can not be happening to me," he mumbled. "This is too much. They're going to kill me. They are actually going to kill me dead for this one, and I'm not even the mastermind behind it."

Krillen rolled her eyes. "Oh, for crying out loud," she groaned. "It doesn't even affect you!"

"Oh, yeah, my dad's really going to let this one slide," the boy responded, glaring at his female babysitter. "I can't believe this. I'm going to die before I even hit the double digits." The purple haired prince jumped to his feet in sudden anger. "Argh! I am never letting Goten be the leader again!"

Said little boy was sitting on the floor, enjoying a snack. "I think that's a good idea," he agreed. "We never got in _this_ much trouble when it was your plan. You can make all the plans for the rest of our lives."

"I'm holding you to that," Trunks grumbled. "Remember, I'm the boss until Dad murders me this afternoon."

"Okie dokie."

Both Krillen and Trunks shook their heads. Much like his father before him, Goten seemed to have the remarkable ability to get over something, _anything_, within a matter of minutes, no longer how absurd the situation.

/

"For the love of Kami," Chi-Chi hollered to her 'husband', "put a shirt on, Goku!"

Goku stuck out her lower lip. "Why?" she genuinely asked. "They're just boobs! We all have them!"

"Dad, you need to put a shirt on!" Gohan loudly agreed. "Remember how whenever one of your buddies is coming over, we make you put your pants on? It's the same thing as that!"

Bulma looked away from the Son family and giggled. "You know," she whispered to Vegeta, handing her a bag of clothing, "listening to this conversation, I can honestly say that our family is not actually all that strange."

Vegeta snorted. "Yes, we are totally normal," she sarcastically replied. "Now put the damn bag down and give me a minute to get dressed."

The heiress raised a well shaped blue eyebrow at her counterpart. "What's with the sudden bout of modesty?" she asked. "I mean, I do understand not wanting to show off the goods to Goku, but why can't I get a peek-a-boo?"

"Because," the raven haired woman very quietly hissed out, "I do not allow anyone to know anything about me that I do not know myself!"

While Bulma was extremely curious about Vegeta's transformation, she actually could find enough sympathy in her heart to let it drop for the moment. She realized that if the tables had been turned, and she had been made into a man, she would not let anyone see her until she had done her own thorough inspection. "These are the most modest things I have with me right now," she softly said. "Sorry that I can't give you much choice."

Vegeta simply nodded and waited for Bulma to disappear with the rest of the crowd on the other side of the tree before rummaging through her clothing options.

Meanwhile, Gohan's face was so bright red that it looked like she was going to have a stroke at any moment. "I don't suppose you bought anything I could wear?" she meekly asked her girlfriend.

Trying her hardest not to laugh at the situation, Videl shook her head. "Nothing that will fit you," she honestly answered. "I got some workout shorts and a dress, but honey, you're still way taller than I am. Hell, you've got to be at least five foot nine!" Videl tilted her head to the side, considering something else for a moment. "Besides, your boobs are to big to fit in my clothes."

"VIDEL!" Gohan screamed, amazingly turning an even more brilliant shade.

"What?" the shorter woman giggled. "You can't tell me it's not true!"

Gohan looked like she was about to cry. "I just want a shirt that covers me up! Doesn't anyone have something I could wear?"

"Not other than my new apron," Chi-Chi sympathetically called out. "You and Goku are both way too tall and, erm, well endowed for our clothes to actually cover you up."

Goku hopped up and down again, still fascinated by her new assets. "Oh, I don't mind!"

"Oh, we're finding you something," Chi-Chi argued back. "No husband of mine is going to wander around with her breasts exposed!" The dark haired mother paused for a moment and shook her head. "Now there's a sentence I never thought I would say…"

"Yeah, great, good for you," Eighteen coolly muttered. "Now if you ladies don't mind, I have my own woman to get to, and I don't want to abandon her with the twins of terror any longer than I have to. I think she's suffered enough without ditching her with those two geniuses any longer than we have to."

"Agreed," Bulma quickly said. "Hey, Vegeta…"

"I'm coming, you unbearable chore of a woman!" she called out, emerging from the trees.

Bulma found herself staring at the woman standing before her. Vegeta was wearing a casual tank top and a pair of jeans, but they clung to her every curve. Her shiny black hair fell around her new, slender shoulders and framed her face beautifully. "Wow," she whispered. "I'm actually really impressed."

"Shut up, woman."

"No, really!" Bulma went on. "Not a lot of women can get a bra connected that quickly on the first try!"

Vegeta blushed furiously up to her ears. "It's a stupid bra, woman," she hissed, beyond mortified that they had an audience. "It's not like I don't know how they work!"

"Yeah, but lots of girls struggle with their first one," Bulma continued to explain, seemingly oblivious to the crowd. "You got the hang of that fast!"

Vegeta stormed up to the heiress and glared furiously into those bright blue eyes. "I swear, to whatever deity is laughing at us right now, that if you do not let this subject drop immediately, I'm going to put your favorite outfit into an engine, just to make sure it gets destroyed!"

Bulma giggled into her hand, but she acknowledged the end of the conversation. "We need to go rescue Krillen."

"Baldie as a woman," Vegeta muttered. "Oh, this is going to be good…"

/

Fifteen minutes later, Trunks and Goten found themselves surrounded by a lot of ticked off (but clothed) women. "What the hell were you two idiots thinking?" Bulma demanded.

Trunks stared at the ground and tried to keep his heart from jumping out of his throat. "We weren't," he mumbled. "Look, Goku had been talking to Goten about how much fun you guys all had hunting for the dragon balls, and Goten really, really wanted to have fun like his dad did. So, when he said we should get the dragon balls…I just didn't say no, okay?"

"Not only that," Vegeta coolly added, "but you snuck away from Baldie, broke into your mother's lab, and stole the dragon ball radar, before _making us into women!"_

The young prince swallowed hard. "In my defense," he squeaked out, "that was not the wish Goten and I were going to make."

"Oh, really?" Chi-Chi responded, glaring down at her youngest son. "Goten, what was the wish you were going to make?"

Trunks opened his mouth, but Chi-Chi put a hand up to silence the boy. "Not this time, Trunks," she intervened, her voice cool and level. "I know that you normally come up with an excuse for the two of you, but it wasn't your scheme this time." She knelt down and looked Goten in the eye. "Goten, you need to tell Mommy what wish you were going to make."

Tears welled up in Goten's eyes. He had been scolded a thousand times before, even yelled at, when he and Trunks had their 'adventures'. But somehow, the calm, patient way his mother was talking to him was scarier than any screaming could ever be. "I'm sorry, Mommy," he whispered.

"I know you are," Chi-Chi pressed on, "but you need to tell me what your wish was going to be."

Goten shook his head, a few of his tears sprinkling the ground as he did. "I don't know," he quietly admitted. "I don't know what I was going to wish for."

"And because you didn't know what you were going to wish for," the seasoned mother went on, "you weren't ready to make the wish when the dragon came out, were you?"

Again, Goten shook his head. He began to suck on his lower lip.

Chi-Chi placed a hand gently on her young son's shoulder. "And because you weren't ready for it, someone else was able to make an accidental wish, weren't they?"

The little boy whimpered, and his shoulders began to shudder as he nodded.

"And that wish is going to make a lot of people have to change their lives," she concluded. "Now, that's not very fair to them, and you know that. So tell me, Goten, are you ever, _ever_, going to sneak away and do something like this?"

Goten furiously shook his head, and he let out a tiny sob.

"Okay," Chi-Chi replied, getting back to her feet. The brunette smiled and offered a slight shrug. "If I scream for everything, then screaming is ineffective as a deterrent. If I scream at small stuff, then talking calmly hits the point home. Since I'm a screamer naturally, that leaves calm for big moments."

Krillen stared at the scenario before her. "Whoah, Chi-Chi, way to bring the mommy A-game!"

"Now that we have that settled," Bulma interrupted, "I guess we might as well get everyone where they belong. We've got an entire year before there's anything we can do, so…"

"Wait a minute!" Gohan interrupted. "Why can't we just go to New Namek and use _their_ dragon balls?"

Bulma shook her head. "I don't have a ship ready that could get us there fast enough," she admitted. "I could rebuild one, but it's going to take at least a few months for me to be able to make anything that could get all the way to New Namek in under a month. So, at least for the time being, it's not an option."

"Fan-damn-tastic," Vegeta mumbled. "At least three months human. Great."

That statement brought several eyebrows up. "_That's_ your biggest concern?" Gohan balked. "Being _human?_ We're freaking _women!"_

Vegeta glared harshly at the teenage girl to his side. "I will have you know that Saiyan women were nothing shy of remarkable," she bit out. "Many of them were even more powerful than their male counterparts. If we had at least remained as Saiyans, we could still fight!"

"Hey!" Chi-Chi snapped. "Human women can fight! I'll have you know that I was one of the strongest fighters on this planet in my youth! I'm one of the four women to make it to the final round of the tournament!"

"Well whoopdee-do for you," Vegeta sneered. "Four whole women have made it among your fighter elite among thousands of men. That _certainly_ says something about the strength of a female on this world."

Off on the side, Bulma actually began to snicker. "Oh, wow," she giggled, "I never would have thought that Vegeta, of all people, would be the first to emerge as a feminist!"

Vegeta's face immediately became extremely bright. "Shut up!" she screamed.

"Anyway," the blue haired scientist went on, wiping her tears of laughter from her eyes, "the point is that for the absolute bare minimum of three months, you guys are stuck just as you are. We might as well go our separate ways and do what we can to adjust to our situation."

"Yeah, that seems good," Videl responded. "And now that there isn't a teenage boy in this house, I can spend the night and help our around here."

Krillen sighed. "Honey," she quietly asked, "can you fly me home?"

The cool blonde said nothing in return. She simply picked up her tiny 'husband' and took for the skies, wondering just what they were going to tell their daughter.

Vegeta, meanwhile, grabbed the capsule case out of her wife's purse. "If I can't fly," she grumbled, "then at least I'm driving." She glared over her shoulder at her son. "Boy, you better be strapped in and ready to go home within four seconds of that car popping open."

On complete autopilot to the tone, Trunks stood upright. "Yes, sir! Uh, ma'am! Um…uh…"

"Just stick with 'yes' for right now," the new female growled.

Trunks swallowed hard. When his father growled normally, it was a deep, rough, intimidating noise. Somehow, as a smooth voiced female, that exact same threat managed to come out even scarier. The smoke from the capsule had not even had time to clear before the young prince was following his command and buckled into his seat.

Bulma shook her head. "Oh, this is going to be fun," she muttered. She turned to Chi-Chi and gave her a hug. "Alright, it looks like we're leaving. You take care, and if you need any help with the girls…" she paused for a moment as Gohan whimpered, "…you just give me a call."

"Of course," Chi-Chi responded. "Well, if you're going to head home, I'll get started on cooking the smallest meal I've cooked in almost a decade!"

From outside the house, the car horn sounded. Bulma rolled her eyes and headed for the door. "That's the wee wifey," she giggled. "Keep in touch. I think we need to swap notes on how this turns out."

"You think this is going to give us good stories?"

From off in the kitchen, both women could hear a horrified squawk from Gohan. "_Dad!"_ she screamed. "_Put your shirt back on!"_

"Oh yeah," Bulma laughed. "We're going to get _great_ stories out of this!"


	4. Chapter 4

"No, Daddy, I'm not on drugs right now," Videl explained over the phone. "Yes, I know it sounds far fetched, but I've got a dozen people who can vouch for it. In fact, if you want to come over here and see what my new girlfriend looks like…" The teenaged girl cringed and held the phone as far away from her head as she could while her father began to shout again. "Okay, too soon to joke about that," she muttered.

Chi-Chi rolled her eyes as she continued to work the dough. "That man doesn't seem to like my Gohan no matter what! You couldn't spend time with him as a boy, you can't spend time with him as a girl…"

Videl shook her head. "Oh, it's nothing like that, Chi-Chi," she assured. "My Dad's just, well, protective of me. Sort of. When it suits him. As of the last four months or so."

"Well, if he ever does manage to relax enough to trust you," the raven haired mother responded, "I, personally, will be thrilled."

Videl nodded, but had to turn and face the wall to keep her actual thoughts to herself. The notion of Chi-Chi, of all people, telling someone to relax with their children, was ludicrous. That woman was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the single most uptight parent the girl had ever met in her life. As the shouting over the phone began to die down, she dared to put it up against her ear again.

"Look, Daddy, why don't you come over here?" she offered. "Then you can see everything for yourself." _Especially if we can't get Goku to keep his damn shirt on,_ she thought. "Mrs. Son has already offered to make a big enough dinner for all of us, and then you can see for yourself what I was talking about." More grumbling came over the phone, and Videl rolled her eyes. "No, Dad, this is not my way of telling you that I'm a lesbian…"

"What's a lesbian?"

Both women whipped around to find Goten standing behind them. "Kami above," Chi-Chi groaned. "This day cannot possibly get worse."

"Mommy?" Goten insisted. "I don't know that word Videl said. What's a lesbian?"

The vein along the mother's temple began to throb, and Chi-Chi honestly thought that the best thing that could happen at that moment would be a massive stroke. The entire day had been so taxing that the concept of dying seemed like an ideal vacation.

She had to think for a moment before answering he son's question. In the five seconds she had to think about it, she figured her best approach would be simple, unassuming terms. Anything beyond that would be well over her naïve son's head. "Well," she slowly began, "you know how you have a mommy and a daddy, and they love each other very, very much?"

"Uh-huh?"

"And you know how a daddy is a boy and a mommy is a girl?" she gently went on.

Goten nodded, following along so far. "Yeah?"

"Well, sometimes, instead of a boy and a girl falling in love like a mommy and daddy, it's a boy with another boy, or a girl with another girl." She knelt down to look her son in the eyes as she continued to explain the topic. "When a girl falls in love with another girl, they are called lesbians."

That seemed to make sense to the little boy. "So, what do you call it when a boy loves another boy?"

Chi-Chi had to think about it for a moment before turning to Videl, who was still on the phone. "Is there a word for that other than gay?"

"Not that I know of," the teenager whispered, keeping her side conversation away from her father.

"So, when a girl loves a girl, she's a lesbian," Goten puzzled out, "and when a boy loves a boy, he's gay. So, since I love Trunks, does that mean I'm gay?"

The vein on Chi-Chi's forehead looked like it was about to rupture.

Videl, who had been trying not to laugh through the entire conversation, actually snorted as she tried to keep it all inside. The entire scene before her was just too much. However, if someone did not step in and help Chi-Chi soon, Videl was fairly certain that the matriarch of the Son clan was going to have an aneurism. "Goten, honey," she interrupted, "that's a different kind of love. The kind of love we're talking about is that kissy-kissy kind that Gohan and I do."

Goten made a face and took a step back. "Ew, kissy-kissy stuff!" he cried out. "That's gross!" And as simply as he had entered the kitchen, the little boy left. His question had been answered, and he wanted to get out of there before more talking about kissing started.

"Ah, the joy of little boys," Videl giggled.

Chi-Chi nodded. "Thank you for the help, by the way," she sincerely said. "I honestly did not think that I was going to have to explain homosexual relationships to a kid that young."

Videl nodded, slightly turning her attention back to the phone. "Okay…okay, Daddy, I'll see you in a couple hours." She quickly hung up and took several large steps away from the appliance. "Well, that went…well…"

Again, Chi-Chi nodded. "Well, if you're done with the phone, can you check on the other boys? Just make sure that Gohan's still breathing and that Goku has _something_ covering the ladies? The lesbian talk was hard enough. I don't know how I'd survive explaining Daddy's boobs to Goten."

The girl giggled. "I have a feeling we're going to be answering a lot of questions in the coming months." She turned to the doorway to the kitchen and quickly blushed. "Well, mission one is about to be taken care of. Goku!" she called out. "Where's your shirt?"

The new woman shrugged as she walked, topless, into the kitchen. "None of them fit right," she casually explained, reaching for the refrigerator. "I figure I'll just stay like this until I can get one that fits."

"Not an option!" Chi-Chi shouted. "Goku, you're putting a shirt on, and you are not taking it off unless you are changing your clothes or taking a bath!"

Goku pouted, but she knew what that tone meant. "Fine," she agreed. "Hey, we're running a little low on food, so I'm gonna go hunting." She turned for the door, only to discover Chi-Chi blocking it completely.

"Oh, I don't think so, missy," Chi-Chi stated. "You're not going anywhere, and you're _especially_ not going anywhere alone."

"Chi-Chi," Goku whined, "there's almost no food in the fridge, and I go hunting all the time! What's the big deal?"

"The big deal," the mother firmly stated, "is that you are no longer the impenetrable fortress of strength that you're used to being. You, my dear, are a human woman now. You are vulnerable to a whole host of things that you've never even thought of as a threat before."

Goku rolled her eyes. "Chich, give me a _little_ credit. I know I'm not as strong as I used to be, and I know that I have to be careful, but I'm a trained martial artist! I know how to protect myself!"

"Oh, really?" Chi-Chi challenged. "Okay, then. Go. Go hunting. Get past me, get out the door, and go hunting. I dare you."

"Chich…"

"No, I'm serious!" she insisted. "Try to get past me! See if your training can get you through this door. If you can do that, we can _discuss_ you going out."

Goku shrugged. It seemed like a fair enough challenge. She knew that Chi-Chi was also an accomplished martial artist, but he had not seen her train since their eldest son had been pretty young. There was no way that she could pose that much of a challenge. She sincerely doubted that it could be half as difficult as that fight with Vegeta when he was possessed.

"Okie dokie," she casually answered, dropping down into a fighting stance.

Chi-Chi smirked and dropped into her own stance. "Don't say I didn't warn you," she cautioned.

Goku made the first move. She figured that she could be out that door in a matter of seconds, her point would be proven, and that would be the end of that. However, she had not taken into account just _how_ much her new body was different. Not only was she lacking her former strength and speed, her general reaction time seemed significantly diminished. As she tried to take a swing at the mother of her children, Goku quickly realized that maybe, just maybe, her wife had a point.

Chi-Chi wasted no time at all. She had Goku's arm batted away and was landing a blow of her own before the new woman could figure out what was going on. "Try to keep up," she taunted.

Goku staggered back and hissed. Her ribs were screaming at her, and the fight was already not going in her favor. Quickly, she shifted into a defensive stance. Clearly, she was going to have to be a little more cautious if she wanted any hope at all of winning the fight.

Chi-Chi moved again, deliberately allowing Goku to block her first few moves. She had been a fighter since her early childhood, and she had been training vigorously over the past seven years in order to train their youngest son. And one thing she had learned a long time ago was that sandbagging for a few blows was a great way to get an opponent to lower their defenses.

It worked like a charm. Goku blocked the initial advances and gained her confidence back, certain that she had figured out what the power difference was. Believing that she once again had an upper hand, she shifted into an offensive strategy.

That was just what Chi-Chi was waiting for. As soon as that change happened, she moved in hard and fast. Before Goku had a chance to figure out what happened, Chi-Chi had her pinned to the ground.

"Game, set, and match," she smirked down at the other woman.

Goku blinked in confusion. "How…when…how…"

"Like I said," Chi-Chi responded, "you're not the powerhouse you used to be. You've gotten too used to being unstoppable, and until you really get used to your new abilities, I'm not letting you do a damn thing on your own."

"I never thought I was unstoppable!" Goku countered, still pinned to the floor. "I've had lots of times where people could have stopped me if I was alone!"

"True," Chi-Chi agreed, "but Goku, sweetie, you've never been this vulnerable before. You used to come up against something that could hurt you once or twice a decade. As hard a concept as I know this might be for you, honey, you are about to find yourself constantly surrounded by potential threats." The wife got to her feet and offered the other woman a hand.

Goku took the offered hand and slowly got to her feet. "But it's not like I'm going to go out and start picking fights with everyone!" she protested.

"I know you're not," Chi-Chi assured. "But Goku, honey, you've never had the greatest social skills in the world, and there's a lot about the way the world works that you just don't understand. There are a lot of things out there that are dangerous that I just don't think you understand."

Goku stuck out her lower lip. "How bad can it be?"

Chi-Chi shook her head. "That question alone tells me you're not ready to go out without someone with you," she sighed. "Sweetheart, I'm not stopping you because I'm trying to punish you. I'm stopping you because I don't want you to get hurt."

They stood in silence for a moment before Goku eventually nodded in defeat. "I'll stay in, I guess."

"Don't worry," Chi-Chi assured her 'husband', "it's not going to always be like this. When you're fully aware of what you can and cannot do, and what you need to be more aware of, then it'll be just fine for you to go out on your own."

Goku nodded, but still did not look happy. "I guess you're right," she relented.

"Besides," Chi-Chi went on, returning to the kitchen, "we're not low on food. We actually have more than enough for dinner for the next few days."

"But there's so little!" Goku whined. "There's not even enough in the fridge for a decent sized snack!"

Chi-Chi shook her head, returning to the dough she had been working on earlier. "Maybe not for a Saiyan," she responded, "but you're a human now. You're not going to be able to eat nearly as much as you did before. In fact, what you had for breakfast this morning is probably the same amount of food that you'll eat for the next month put together."

Goku's eyes bugged out. "You're not going to let me eat?"

A wail sounded from upstairs, distracting the parents for a moment, but Chi-Chi recovered first. "I am not starving you, Goku. I'm going to give you all the food you need. But you're not going to need a ton of food anymore. You're eating the same amount of food I am, because that's all you need. Trust me."

With a whine, Goku sat down at the kitchen table and began to tug at her shirt again. "This sucks," she complained. "I can't eat, I can't go outside, you kicked my butt, my shirt's too tight for my boobs…" She squirmed again, trying her hardest to keep from taking her shirt back off. "I don't like this anymore!"

"Anymore?" Chi-Chi asked.

"Well, it was kinda nifty at first," Goku explained. "I mean, it's not something I'd ever thought about before, but it was still kinda cool at first. New stuff always is. But it's not fun anymore, because instead of getting to try cool new stuff, I'm not allowed to do stuff I used to do all the time!"

With a shake of her head, Chi-Chi placed part of their dinner in the oven. "I'll tell you what, honey. Starting tomorrow, I'll start training you, taking you out, and getting you ready to greet the world all on your own. It's going to take patience, but I'll help you ever step of the way."

With a pout still on her lips, Goku looked at her wife. "You promise?"

"I promise."

Goku huffed slightly, but agreed. "How long do you think it'll take before you'll let me do stuff on my own again?"

Chi-Chi shook her head, keeping her eyes on the food on the stove. "Until you're good and ready."

Another wail sounded from the upper level of their home, and again, both parents looked up. "I guess Gohan's taking this even harder than I am," Goku said.

"Either that or Videl's torturing him more than I'm torturing you," Chi-Chi responded.

She hit that nail right on the head.


	5. Chapter 5

Gohan sat on her bed cross legged, a blanket wrapped around her new torso. She had been anything but talkative since they had gotten inside the house, save the occasional scream of horror from the vision of a topless Goku flaunting her new assets.

Beside the newfound female, Videl rolled her eyes. "Don't you think the blanket is a tad overkill?"

"No," Gohan firmly responded. "No, I do not. In fact, I think I need another one…"

"Oh, for crying out loud, Gohan!" the smaller teen grunted, yanking the blanket swiftly off of the tall girl. "You've got a shirt on! What is your problem?"

Gohan snatched the blanket back and once again cocooned herself in it. "My problem?" she cried, cinching the blanket tight around her shoulders. "My problem is that I went from an awkward but powerful superhero boy to an awkward girl!"

The petite teen inched closer to the struggling girl. "Being a girl isn't so bad," she tried to console.

But Gohan just shook her head. "It is when you're a boy!" she countered.

Videl raised an eyebrow at her companion, backing away for a moment. "Are you sure you're Gohan, not Goten?" she teased. "Because that really does sound like a seven year olds response."

Wailing, Gohan buried her head underneath the protection of the blanket. "You wouldn't understand!" she called out. "If you suddenly became a boy, you'd be upset, too!"

"Probably," Videl admitted. "But we already know that it's going to take a few months before we can undo this, honey, so let's try to look on the positive side. It will allow you to get in touch with your feminine side…"

"Great, because Sharpener doesn't call me a girl enough already," Gohan whined.

Videl pretended she did not hear that response. "It will give you a chance to understand what it's like to be completely human," she pointed out.

A huff sounded from within the blanket. "Great. What a fantastic opportunity to see exactly what it is like if I was actually normal. That couldn't possibly have any ill effects when it all goes away and I become a freak again."

The other girl blinked in surprise. "Gohan, you're not a freak," she gently insisted.

"Oh, please," Gohan griped, still keeping her head underneath the blanket. "Do I really need to point out the eight million reasons I'm different from everyone else on the planet? Should we start with the fact that I'm half alien? That I'm a nerd? Oh, I know, let's focus on how no matter how hard I try, I can never seem to get a grasp of how actual societies seem to function since I'm not really a part of them!"

"Gohan," Videl counseled, sliding closer to the other girl, "I know you feel like an outcast, but that's just because you're not used to some of these things. It's not because you're a freak. It just has to do with what you're used to. I still don't blend in with your group of friends either, you know."

The front of the blanket gapped open just slightly, and Gohan's feminine face barely peaked out. "You blend in just fine," she replied.

"Oh, really?" the indigo eyed girl responded with a snort. "Let's see here. I'm still not completely proficient at flying, my family has not been in league with yours for decades, I don't know how to form energy blasts yet, I still stare whenever I see a Saiyan eat…"

"Everyone does," Gohan morosely interrupted, once again burying her face in the cloth.

Videl rolled her eyes. "I'm still the new kid in town as far as your little gang is concerned," she affirmed. "Hell, I've never even directly helped out in a fight! The only help I've been to this group was as a human punching bag so that freak at the tournament could display his power! Face it, I was useless."

The blanket dropped from Gohan's head completely, but it did remain firmly wrapped around her shoulders. "No you weren't!" she insisted. "You were very useful."

The smaller girl glared at her love. "How, exactly?" she demanded.

"Um, morale?" Gohan squeaked out. "Okay, so maybe your fists weren't directly used, but it was still helpful that you were there! I know I would have had a much harder time if I didn't know that you were depending on me!"

"But that, honey, is the point I'm trying to make," she gently concluded. "Your little group goes out and saves the world. I just needed to be saved."

The room fell silent for a moment before Videl noticed Gohan squirming on the bed. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," Gohan quickly answered.

Videl got on her knees and looked the former Saiyan up and down. "Well, at least your ability to lie hasn't changed with all of this. Seriously, what's wrong?"

"Nothing!" Gohan insisted, scooting back.

The other girl began to crawl around the former boy, analyzing carefully. "Honestly, Gohan, what could possibly be so embarrassing that you couldn't tell me about…" Her bright eyes widened suddenly and she began to giggle. "Why Gohan, are your panties in a twist?"

"I do not wear panties!" the taller teen wailed, jumping off the bed altogether.

"No," Videl agreed, "but maybe you should. I can't imagine your current underwear is all that comfortable on your new body."

Gohan groaned. "Fantastic," she muttered. "Why don't we just get me a bra while we're at it?"

Videl hopped off the bed and nodded. "Well, I was actually going to suggest…"

"You can't be serious!" Gohan snapped.

"Why not?" Videl shot back. "You're going to need support for those things!" she called out, pointing directly at Gohan's new breasts. "Look, I'm not saying that you need to get a matching red lacey panty set, just, you know, some _functional_ underwear."

Gohan wearily eyed her girlfriend. "You promise you won't get me anything too frilly?" he hesitantly asked.

Videl smiled gently and put a hand on Gohan's shoulder. "I would never make you wear anything I wouldn't wear myself."

A sly look came across the former boy's face. "Well, in order to know that you're being honest, I'm going to have to see…" The smack on the head hurt more than she had anticipated. "Ow!" she cried out. She rubbed the back of her head and looked at her girlfriend. "It was worth a shot!"

"Try that shot again and you're going underwear shopping with Bulma," the shorter girl darkly threatened. "Then you can walk around all day in what _she_ wears."

"Yeah, her underwear doesn't look comfy," Gohan agreed, nodding along. She glanced down at Videl and was startled by the wide, horrified eyes staring up at her. "What?" she innocently asked.

It took a moment for Videl's mouth to start working. "When, exactly, did you see Bulma's underwear?" she balked.

The taller teen looked down at her companion. "Are you kidding me?" she simply replied. "It's Bulma. Everyone's seen her underwear. During the majority of the trip to Namek, she didn't wear pants. When she thought Krillen and I were asleep, she sometimes took off her shirt."

Videl turned red at the thought of Gohan being around the heiress as she strut around in her unmentionables. "I take it that you weren't always asleep when she did that?" she asked.

"Bulma likes to be comfortable, and because of that, I saw my first topless woman before I turned ten," Gohan affirmed. "Of course, I wasn't sure what I was looking at back then. The point is, though, I've seen her underwear, and with the exception of that lavender set, it did not look comfortable."

An awkward silence filled the room before Videl coughed. "Um, so anyway, I think you and I should go shopping tomorrow."

Gohan groaned and sat back down on the bed. "Do I really need those things?"

"That and more," the little fighter agreed. "Face it, Gohan, your boy clothes just don't fit you right now. Like I said, I'm not going to make you go out and buy a bunch of dresses and jewelry and such. I just want to make sure that you'll be able to get through the next few months as comfortably as possible."

Gohan sighed and looked over at her girlfriend. "You know what the worst part of all of this is?" she gently asked.

"What?"

The tall girl's eyes drifted to the wall. "I'm not going to get to go to my own high school graduation."

Videl inhaled sharply. She had honestly not considered their high school career since the incident began. Gohan had a point. They were graduating in two months. There was absolutely no way to have the wish undone by then. "Well," she hesitantly thought out loud, "maybe there is something we could do about that."

Gohan rolled her eyes. "Let me guess," she huffed, "you're going to have me be Gohan's long lost, never before heard of sister."

"Now that would just be insane," Videl immediately countered. "Besides, the school already has your profile. It clearly states that you have one younger sibling and that your parents are only children. You couldn't even pass for your own cousin." She paused for a moment before adding, "Of course, it also says your father is dead…"

"He was when we filled out the form!" Gohan defended.

It was Videl's turn to roll her eyes. "What I was actually thinking," she went on, getting the conversation back on track, "was just having you finish up the school year through correspondence. Then you, in your current form, could be a 'family friend' accepting the diploma on Gohan's behalf."

Gohan sighed again. The entire concept was not sitting well with her. "It's not the same," she softly whispered. "I know it sounds dorky, but I really wanted to get to do the whole high school thing. I begged Mom to let me go in the first place. I wanted friends my own age. I wanted to know what the world could offer outside of fighting. I wanted to earn my grades, put on the cap and gown, and look at my family in the audience as I was announced valedictorian."

Videl raised an eyebrow. "It was _your_ idea to become valedictorian?" she asked, clearly not believing it.

"It was," Gohan agreed. "You've never really had the chance to see that side of me, but I am ridiculously competitive."

The smaller girl nodded. "I'll believe it." She snuggled up to her love and rested her head on Gohan's shoulder. "Well, if you really want to go, we could just arrange for you to be a transfer student. I'll pretend I don't know you, and you can have a completely fresh start."

Gohan shook her head. "I appreciate the thought," she said, "but getting through the application process alone is going to be impossible. They need about a thousand things from you before you can transfer into a school, including a copy of your birth certificate. I don't have any of that documentation."

"No," Videl relented, "but we know someone who could get all that for you. Doesn't Bulma have the skills to magically make someone appear in a system?"

Sitting up a little straighter, Gohan nodded. "I hadn't thought of that," she admitted, "but you're right! Vegeta's got a driver's license, passport, everything! If she can fit _him_ into the system, then she could easily do it for me!" She whipped around and hugged her girlfriend. "Oh, you're the best! Thank you!"

Videl gasped a little for air, but smiled up at Gohan's beaming face. "Glad you approve," she gasped out, righting herself. "We can talk to Bulma about it tomorrow, but there is something you should probably have ready for her before then."

"What?" Gohan asked.

Videl smirked at her love. "Your new name! You can't go back as Gohan, clearly, so you're going to need to come up with a name that sounds nothing like your current one but still will likely respond to."

All of the color drained from Gohan's face. "I need a new name," she thought out loud, "but I've always been Gohan…what else could I go by? And where am I from? Man, there's so much we need to come up with…"

The two stayed up half the night trying to work out the new identity for the former demi-Saiyan. By the time the sun rose, they had an entirely new life laid out for the former Gohan.


	6. Chapter 6

Bulma yawned and stretched out before nestling herself deeper against her plush pillows. There were few things that the heiress enjoyed more than those first few seconds after waking up when she got to revel in comfort. With her eyes still closed and a lazy smile on her face, she reached across the bed for her husband. But, as was the case on most mornings, he was not there.

It took several seconds for Bulma's brain to fully wake up and realize that Vegeta's absence could not be for the usual reasons. Her prince always rose before sunrise to train intensely in the gravity room, but as an average human woman, that would have been impossible. The heiress growled as she rolled out of bed, remembering the events of the day before. "Stupid wish," she mumbled, pulling on her robe and leaving the room.

She went straight for the kitchen, one of her husband's usual haunts, but it was oddly quiet. So was the gravity room her exercise room. With a quizzical expression, she began systematically checking each and every room of the compound. However, Vegeta seemed to be nowhere in the residential complex.

"Okay," the heiress slowly said to herself. "Let's think about this. Vegeta's gone through a radical change, lost his powers, and is likely mad as hell. In that mood, he wants to fight. There's no one around here to fight, and all the cars are here, so he didn't go out. Where could he get out his aggression…" Suddenly, her eyes grew wide and she smacked herself in the forehead. "Ugh, I am such an idiot! I know _exactly _where he'll be!"

Bulma ran back up to bedroom just long enough to toss on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt before jogging over to her office building. She went straight to her office and pulled open a secret door on the side, walking in to the hidden room. "Having fun?" she asked.

Vegeta did not even turn her head in her direction. Her focus was entirely on the anchored punching bag she was assaulting in Bulma's private work gym. The heiress had designed the room for two purposes initially: personal fitness, and having something to take her fury out on during the work day. It was used more so for that second reason than the first, and it appeared that her husband had found it equally useful.

The blue haired beauty approached the former Saiyan. "Why are you up so ungodly early?" she casually asked.

"I'm always up ungodly early," Vegeta sneered, still not looking away from her target. "You've given me grief about that for a decade."

Bulma shrugged one shoulder and crossed her arms. "Yeah," she agreed, "but I figured you'd sleep in today."

Vegeta continued to swing at the punching bag. "Why would I do that?" she huffed.

"Well, what with this whole change..."

The newly formed human growled and kicked hard. "The only change has been to my body, not to my mind or my personality."

Bulma nodded, but still looked slightly confused. "But why are you in here?"

Vegeta spared a glance toward the heiress but maintained her aggressive performance. "Why do you think, you insufferable chore?"

"Hey, I'm on your side," Bulma insisted, holding up her hands defensively.

"Hn, let's see how long that lasts..." Vegeta mumbled.

Bulma's eyes narrowed at the comment. "What do you mean by that?"

"Even money has you mocking me for this by the end of the morning."

Bulma moved around the room slightly, getting more directly into Vegeta's line of sight. She was not happy about what her other half was insinuating. "Hey, give me a little credit!"

"Why?" Vegeta growled. "You haven't earned it. You spent the better part of yesterday asking me to flash you for comparisons sake, then asked if I would let your French braid my hair and pierce my ears. You have been anything but on my side."

For once, Bulma opted to concede the point. While she ultimately wanted to be supportive, the urge to be playful the previous day had been too much to turn down. "Oh, shut up," she jokingly stated. "Seriously, why are you in my gym instead of your usual training grounds?"

Vegeta raised an eyebrow and spared a glance, but she still did not slow down. "Are you serious?"

"What?" Bulma genuinely asked.

"I can't train in there!" she shouted. "I'm a ridiculously weak human woman! I couldn't possibly survive my usual routine!"

Bulma shook her head and dropped her arms. "Well I was hardly suggesting you crank it up to seven hundred g's, but I thought at least one and a half, maybe two."

Vegeta's assault on the training equipment was growing increasingly more violent. "I have no idea what this body will tolerate," she furiously growled, grunting as each blow landed. "It would have been idiotic to do that."

"Never stopped you in the past," Bulma murmured, looking away.

With fire burning in her eyes, Vegeta stopped fighting and whipped around toward the heiress. "Is there something you needed, or can you get the hell out and let me keep training?"

"Why, exactly, are you training?" the blue haired beauty asked with all sincerity. "Do you really believe that the maintenance you keep on this body will transfer over when we undo the wish?"

Vegeta, still clearly angry, crossed her arms over her ample chest. "First of all, yes. It only stands to reason that we will be transformed back into the male, Saiyan counterparts of these pitiful bodies. And secondly, as I previously stated, it is the body alone that has changed. I am still the same person I was."

Bulma nodded, but she was still concerned. Vegeta's tendency to push her body beyond her limits was a secret to no one, and just like the brunette before her, Bulma had reasoned that when the wish was undone, they would be returned to a correlating version of the condition of their female forms. Bulma was worried that through overexertion and extreme conditioning, Vegeta was going to end up with an injury that a human would not be able to heal from. And, if that was the case, then when changed back into a Saiyan Vegeta could still be damaged.

"You know," she casually began, "there are dozens of other ways for a human woman to stay in shape." 

"I don't want them," Vegeta bit out, turning back to the bag and starting to swing again. "I want to fight." 

"I know," the heiress agreed, though clearly frustrating, "but fighting isn't the only thing out there." 

Vegeta kicked hard at the training equipment. "That's what I do," she replied, grunting with each blow. "I do it, and I do it well." 

Bulma fought to keep her composure, but it was never her forte. "Sure, as a Saiyan," she agreed, "but I think you're going to have to find a new hobby as a human." 

"Pass." 

The scientist growled. "Vegeta, it's only a few months," she shot out. "Just find something a little less intense while you're in that body!" 

Another grunt sounded. "I said, pass." 

"Oh, for crying out loud, it's not like you have your old power!" Bulma called out. 

Vegeta froze, and it seemed that the entire temperature of the room dropped. "Get out," she bit out. 

Bulma took a nervous step back. "What?" 

Furiously, the former prince whipped around and shouted again, "Get out!" 

"Vegeta..." 

"No!" she hollered. "I am not going to let you stay here and tell me that I'm overreacting to something. I have spent my entire god damned life making my way to the top. I have fought and suffered for years for my power, and thanks to those two morons who, I swear to the gods, are grounded until I'm deep in the cold ground, I have lost it! It's been my life's work, Bulma, and it's gone!" 

With a sympathetic look on her face, Bulma approached the former Saiyan and reached out a soothing hand. "Honey, I understand..." 

But the woman would have none of it. "No, you don't!" she screamed, pushing the heiress away. "You have no idea, _none_, about what this feels like!"

Bulma cringed, but knew when it was time to shut up.

Vegeta slammed her fist into the punching bag a single time. "Imagine that you were in the middle of a project when you suddenly lost your knowledge and ability to engineer and your lab disappeared. You knew that you once had it, but it's not there at all anymore. Everything that you prided yourself on was gone," she snapped her fingers for emphasis, "in an instant, and there was no way to reverse it for a year. You would be destroyed! You would hate every waking moment that you had, and don't you DARE tell me otherwise!" 

The heiress looked down at her sock covered feet. The brunette before had a great point. It was not just some hobby that Vegeta had lost. It really was his life's work. "I guess you're right," she softly whispered. 

"You're damn right I am!" the brunette female shouted. 

Sheepishly, Bulma nodded. "May I say one more thing before I go?" she softly asked. 

"What?" Vegeta muttered, trying to keep her temper in check. 

A wicked smirk crossed Bulma's features as she looked her partner right in the eye. "You look slammin' hot in my hot pink workout top!" 

Vegeta's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Woman..." 

"No, seriously!" the blue haired beauty gushed. "You rock that look way better than even I did!" 

Crimson raced across the former Saiyan's cheeks, and she found it necessary to keep her eyes on the punching bag. "It was the only one that fit," she mumbled. 

Bulma nodded in enthusiastic agreement. "Well, it fits like a dream. And your ponytail is perfect! How on earth did you manage to get that done so well?" 

Vegeta growled dangerously, keeping her focus on the bag. "It's not like I've never seen a ponytail!" she defended. 

The sly look remained on the heiress' face. "You know, you picked up on that bra awfully fast, too..." she teased. 

"Shut up!" the former prince violently snapped. "I know how to work a bra because after a decade watching you slip naked out of bed and put yours on, it was hardly rocket science. And do you have any idea how much hair Raditz had? It was everywhere! It was more a hazard than any weapon or toxin we ever came up against, and I usually had to make him tie it back. I spent twenty years with that man! I saw thousands of them!" 

Bulma shrugged, deciding his arguments were valid. "Fair enough," she relented. "I just think you should know that you're still a hottie." 

Furiously, Vegeta once again assaulted the punching back with renewed vigor. "Fine. Whatever. Go away," she bit out. 

The heiress figured that enough was enough, and that maybe she had been a little unfair with her mate. "Okay," she consented. "I'll go." She began to make her way out toward her office, but a nagging feeling got her to stop at the door. "Hey, Vegeta?" she softly asked. 

"What?" the brunette snarled. 

Bulma watched as Vegeta slammed fists and legs against the punching bag with a violence she had not seen come out in years. She suddenly felt guilty about the taunting she had done. "If you ever need something, you know where to find me," she quietly offered. 

Vegeta did not even glance in her direction. "Yeah, right," she grunted.

With a guilty conscience, Bulma backed out of the gym and closed the door. Vegeta had been right, she had teased him before they had even reached the end of the morning. While being playfully mean was a regular part of their repertoire, Bulma had to admit that they were facing special circumstances.

She nodded to herself as she headed back toward her living quarters. She owed him an apology, and she already had a great idea for what it could be.


	7. Chapter 7

Eighteen hung up the phone and shook her head. "Krillen!" she called, summoning her husband down the stairs. When no answer came, she called for him again, but once again she got no answer. Grunting in annoyance, the blonde woman walked up the staircase to their room.

"You cannot hide in this room forever," she told her husband.

The newly formed woman nodded, but she simply continued to stare out the window wordlessly. She did not even look up at her wife's entrance.

Eighteen leaned against the doorframe and looked at her husband, more than a little concerned. In all the years she had known Krillen, the short human had been extremely extroverted. A love of conversation, a penchant for corny jokes, any excuse at all usually had Krillen all smiles. But ever since the transformation, which was really only twenty three hours earlier, Krillen had completely changed her behavior. In fact, she had barely spoken at all since they had gotten home. Most of her time had been spent looking out their bedroom window and gently rocking in the chair.

Clearing her throat, the blonde told her husband, "Bulma just called." When there was no visible reaction, Eighteen went on. "We've been invited to go shopping for you and the others this afternoon."

The rocking suddenly stopped, and Krillen looked up at her wife. "I'm not going."

"Krillen, I know it'll embarrassing," Eighteen informed, still standing in the doorway, "but all of the others will be there with you, and…"

"I said I'm not going!" the shorter woman snapped.

That certainly caught the blonde off guard. "Why?" she gently demanded.

Krillen looked forlornly at her wife for a moment before turning back to the window. "I'm not going," she repeated in a morose tone.

Eighteen pushed herself off of the doorframe and took a seat on the edge of the bed, sitting near her husband's chair. With a gentle touch, she reached out and placed a hand on her love's shoulder. "Krillen," she softly spoke, "what's really wrong?"

The little woman shook her head and resumed mildly rocking. "It's nothing," she returned.

However, Eighteen had never been one to let anything go when it involved her husband. "Clearly that's not true," she firmly stated. "Tell me what the real issue is here, because it really doesn't seem like simply becoming a female is what is bothering you."

Krillen shook her head. "I don't want to go out with them," she repeated.

"And why is that?" the blonde asked, being far more gentle than she normally acted. While she had reputation that she had well earned as an ice queen, she was not nearly as heartless as the majority of their friends thought she was.

"I don't want to talk about it," was the only response the smaller female gave.

Eighteen sat quietly for a minute and withdrew her hand from her husband. She was unaccustomed to having to milk Krillen for information. Her husband normally supplied anything she needed and much, much more, without any provocation. Finally, she opted to slip her foot underneath the rocking chair and flipped it around, forcing Krillen to look at her.

"Talk to me," she demanded, crossing her arms and glaring.

While definitely frustrated, Krillen knew that look meant that her wife was not going to go anywhere or do anything unless she got an answer. "Look," the diminutive woman replied, a very sad look in her eyes, "I don't want to be seen with the other guys."

Eighteen's naturally narrow eyes narrowed further in confusion. "Because you believe because they will embarrass you?" she guessed.

Shaking her head, Krillen looked away. "No, that's not it."

"Then what is it?" she pressed.

Krillen still did not look up until her wife forced her to make eye contact, and even then the tiny woman squirmed. "It's no big deal," she insisted.

"Liar," the blonde accused. "Now tell me what the hell the big deal is."

Shooting to her feet, Krillen's eyes suddenly filled up with fire. "You want to know what the big deal is?" she demanded. "I'll tell you what the big deal is. The big deal is that I'm…I'm…I can't. I just can't!"

Eighteen scoot herself closer to her husband. "Krillen," she softly spoke, "whatever it is, you can tell me."

With an exhausted sigh, Krillen kept her eyes out the window. "Eighteen," she quietly answered, "I don't want anyone to see me."

"They've already seen you," the blonde pointed out, not getting it at all. "In fact, they saw you like this a day ago."

"No," her husband explained, still looking outside, "I don't want anyone _else_ to see me. Especially with the others."

Realization suddenly dawned on the icy blonde woman. "Wait, you don't want to go outside with them because of attractiveness?"

Krillen scoffed and turned her gaze from the window to the floor. "I knew you thought it was stupid," she muttered. "There was no way you were going to get it."

"And why not?" the taller woman demanded. "What could possibly be so far beyond my grasp about the concept of insecurity?"

"Gee, where do I start?" Krillen sneered. "Let's see here, there's the fact that you're a ridiculously hot blonde woman with a flawless body and a perfect face who will never get old, there's the fact that that you're tall enough to be elegant but not so tall that guys would be threatened by you, there's the fact that you're unrivaled as the strongest woman on the planet, and let's not forget that…"

"Krillen!" Eighteen interrupted.

The smaller woman shut up, but she looked as upset as ever. However, she did finally look back up at her wife.

The blonde got on her feet and shook her head, clearly frustrated with her husband. "I had no idea you were so shallow," she bit out. "If I had known that it was physical appearance that you coveted most in a woman, then…"

"No," Krillen interrupted back, "this has nothing to do with you, okay? I'm saying that when an attractive woman walks by a group of people, they'll think about how hot she is for a minute and then forget about her. But if I, a freakishly short, noseless, flat chested woman walks by, they'll stare at me for a minute before talking about what a freak I am for the rest of their natural lives!"

With a roll of her eyes, Eighteen sat back down. "Why does it matter?" she countered. "You are no longer a single person desperately trying to get a date. You are a married person, one who will likely never see any of these people ever again. If anything, you got lucky with this wish." When her husband snorted, the blonde forced eye contact and smirked. "You might not be the hottest female in the group, but you'll be the only one able to fly under the radar in public. Imagine what it will be like the first time a guy hits on Goku and she doesn't know what the hell to do."

A slow smile formed on Krillen's face as she looked at her wife. "I hadn't thought about it like that," she admitted.

"Come on," Eighteen said, getting to her feet and pulling Krillen out of the chair, "let's go watch the other idiots suffer."

/

Krillen could not get the blood to stop pumping wildly along her cheeks as they entered the mall. They had just barely set foot in the place and she was already mortified. Bulma had swung by not long ago with the rest of the crew in tow, and they had gone straight to the nearest mall. The car ride itself was not too bad. In fact, almost nothing had been said at all and everyone was avoiding eye contact, so Krillen thought it was downright pleasant.

But as soon as they landed, all hell had broken loose. Gohan freaked out and refused to leave the car, blocking the entire passenger exit as she clung on to the frame as though for dear life. Videl, frustrated as all get out, was tugging at her love as hard as she could in a vain attempt to liberate the others from the vehicle. Chi-Chi had to keep a hand on the back of Goku's shirt, needing to in order to keep the damn thing on. Goku, still fascinated with her assets, kept touching herself over her shirt in awe. Vegeta had been determined to get in, accomplish the mission, and get the hell out as fast as humanly possible, but Bulma was already talking about spending the entire day at the mall, getting the 'princess' into a barely containable rage.

As such, Krillen was too embarrassed by the actions of those around her to be embarrassed by her awkward appearance. Just getting to the front door had been almost enough to mortify her to death. She tugged on her wife's sleeve. "Can we ditch these guys?" she quietly asked.

Eighteen did not need to be told twice. Grabbing her husband, the blonde made a break for the far end of the mall at the fastest walk planet Earth had ever seen.

"Spoil sports!" Bulma shouted after the retreating couple. With a huff, she blew her bangs away from her eyes and fisted her hands at her sides. "Honestly, do they not know a generous offer when they see one? I mean, I offer to buy them everything they could possibly need in the coming months, and they've completely abandoned us! Is that not the rudest…thing…you ever…" The heiress trailed off as she realized that the rest of the group had followed suit and abandoned her, and her purse was gone, too.

Bulma stomped her feet as she marched into the mall, screaming, "I HATE YOU ALL!" on her way.

/

Around a few corners, Videl shook her head and tried to ignore the pitiful noise behind her. "Come on," she guided her love, "the stuff you're going to want is over here."

Gohan continued to whimper as she was pulled into a fairly generic clothing store. "I want to go home," she stage whispered.

"Sucks to be you," the little spitfire shot back, dragging Gohan behind her very forcibly. "Come on, your choices are to go in and get what you need, or to go to school naked on Monday. Now, as much as I'm sure Sharpener and the other guys would _love_ to see a hot, naked girl walk into fourth period science, it is probably in your better interested to suck it up and get in here!"

With another pathetic whimper, Gohan sullenly nodded and followed her girlfriend. As much as she hated the idea of shopping for girlie clothing for herself, she knew perfectly well that her girlfriend would find some way to make life worse. "Okay," she mumbled.

_Finally_, the shorter girl thought with a roll of her eyes. Videl was never the sort who enjoyed shopping in the past, but that did not mean that she was completely oblivious to what to look for. She moved swiftly for the casual apparel and nabbed a pair of high waisted jeans. "Here," she firmly said, thrusting them into Gohan's arms, "go try these on. They should be near your size, but you need to tell me if you need something bigger or smaller."

"But…"

"You go try these on," Videl commanded sternly, "and I will find appropriate shirts and underwear. Now go!"

Gohan gulped as she headed for the changing room. She had heard that tone before, but it usually came from her mother. No matter who it came from, though, she knew that it meant to hustle or face hell. "Be nice to me!" she called out, entering a dressing room. "I've had a very bad last few days!"

Videl, pulling shirts off of a shelf, rolled her eyes. She knew Gohan was having a hard time, but if she had to listen to that wailing every thirty seconds, heads were going to roll.

/

"Go _in_ the changing room," Chi-Chi bit out, shoving her husband through the store.

Goku frowned down at her wife. "It's okay, honey," she genuinely responded, "I don't mind."

With a clearly annoyed grunt, Chi-Chi dropped her shoulder before actually hoisting her lover off of the ground and hauling her to the dressing room. "It's not there for _your_ comfort," she grunted, stalking into a stall, "it's for mine! Bulma's only paying for your clothes. She said nothing about posting bail for indecent exposure!"

The taller woman actually squeaked as she was chucked into the changing room. "Wow, you're really strong!" she gasped, clearly impressed.

Chi-Chi shook her head, hanging up the chosen clothing on the stall's hooks. "Of course I am," she muttered, mostly to herself. "I whooped your butt twelve hours ago."

"What?" Goku asked.

The smaller woman turned around and smiled. "Nothing, sweetie!" she chirped. "Now, you put on one of these outfits, and then let _me_ see it so _I_ can decide if it fits you properly." As she watched her husband open her mouth, Chi-Chi quickly explained, "You don't know how women's clothes are supposed to fit, and you will need help if you want ones that will let you do what you want to do without wearing out."

"Oh," Goku accepted with a nod, "I get it."

She never heard her wife mutter, "It's a miracle," as she walked out of the room.

/

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Krillen fought, stomping her foot. "I am _not_ doing it!"

Eighteen sent her trademark icy glare toward her husband and crossed her arms. "You have to, and you know it."

"I do _not_ know it," the diminutive woman hissed. "You girls have stores for everything that even _one_ of you could want. There has to be a store for the petite!"

The blonde leaned against the entryway of the store they were next to. "They do," she coolly replied. "But you are not petite. You aren't tall enough to be petite."

Krillen returned her wife's glare with matching intensity. "I am not going to shop in a children's store, and that is final!"

"This can't be a new idea for you," Eighteen countered, not giving up an inch. "You were too small to be 'petite' before this entire catastrophe started, and I can't imagine that there is a section in a men's department with clothing that would actually fit you."

A wild blush spread across Krillen's face. In all the years that the two of them had been together, Eighteen had never actually known Krillen to go out shopping for new clothing. In fact, as she thought about it, there was not one outfit in his wardrobe that he had not either already owned or had made himself. She suddenly found herself wondering where, exactly, her husband acquired clothing.

"Look," she said, choosing to grill the fed up woman at another time, "this is the only option we have for the time being. Let's just get in, get you a few essentials, and get out before half the group ends up getting arrested for god only knows what."

Krillen pouted, but conceded the point. "Fine," she grumbled, shoving her hands in her pockets. "Let's just get this done and over with…"

/

Bulma tore around another corner, trying to find any of the women she had come with. The three other couples, plus her husband, had seemingly scattered over the entirety of the mall. And it appeared that either they were all ignoring her or not one of them had a working cell phone with them. As such, she was rounding out her twentieth minute of searching for the others.

"Damn it!" she said to herself. "Where the hell are they?"

The heiress noticed a sign posted in the mall listing the shops, and she quickly maneuvered her way over to it. After all, it was a mall she was unfamiliar with. She quickly scanned for athletic shops, assuming that she could probably find at least _one_ of them that way. She was so wrapped up in the map that she did not notice the person behind her until she felt the sharp kick in her ankle.

"OW!" she shrieked, hopping up and down on her non-injured foot. "God, watch where you are _going_, you little…" She stopped as suddenly as she started, though, as she realized that she had been kicked by her husband. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Getting my work done, you moron," the raven haired woman sneered. "We came with a purpose, it has been completed, now let's get the hell out of here before I reduce this building to nothing more than rubble and ash."

Bulma rolled her eyes. "Right. You go ahead and summon a ki blast, and we'll all go running."

Vegeta's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I may not be able to form an enormous energy wave right now," she darkly threatened, "but I know a thousand ways to cause enormous amounts of destruction with minimal effort. I could bring this place to the ground in ten minutes."

The heiress shook her head. She did not doubt for a moment that her lover was capable of causing the damage she threatened to bring, but she knew that the former prince was not dumb enough to follow through with it. Instead, she opted to change the subject. "You actually went clothes shopping, for women's clothes, on your own?"

"Well I sure as hell was not about to let _you_ tag along," Vegeta retaliated.

Bulma opened her mouth to fight back, but she shut it promptly. After all, it had only been that morning that she had sworn to apologize for her behavior. So far, she was doing a fairly poor job of being nice. She swore privately that she was going to follow through with her idea to make good with her husband. "Hey," she said, reaching for one of the bags, "let me take a look at what you got."

"Not a chance in hell, woman," the former Saiyan shot back, pulling away. "We're leaving. Now."

"Vegeta," the heiress softly reasoned, "we came with six other people. We can't just abandon them here."

"Sure we can," Vegeta responded, walking swiftly for the door. "You put the key in the ignition, turn on the car, and laugh as you hear the losers yelling behind you. Now move your fat ass and get in the car."

Bulma fumed, stomping behind her husband. "You know," she called out, chasing down the black haired woman, "I'd think you were PMS-ing if it weren't for the fact that you're a bitch every single day!" The heiress watched as her husband firmly placed her bags in the car, slammed the back shut, and climbed into the driver's seat. "Oh, very funny!" she shouted out. "What are you going to do, abandon the rest of us here?"

The former prince did not even look in her direction as she put the keys in the engine and brought the machine to life.

"Vegeta?" Bulma called out, trying to catch her husband's eyes. "This is a joke, right?"

As the vehicle took off, Bulma cursed her husband's name, unable to hear the maniacal laughter of the woman who drove away.


	8. Chapter 8

"I don't want to do this," Gohan whimpered, once again shielding her body in the homemade blanket.

Chi-Chi glared at her firstborn child and grabbed the blanket with two hands. With great force, she tore the blanket away and tossed it behind her body, never once breaking eye contact. "I don't care if you WANT to go or not," she shouted, closing the gap between the two of them, "you are _going_ to school today and that is _final_!"

Again, the teenager whimpered. "But they're all going to stare at me!"

"Probably," Goku agreed, nodding along. "I mean, you are pretty cute!"

"DAD!"

Goten watched his family, slowly sipping away at his morning tea. His mommy had been in a bad mood since the day before. He was not entirely sure what happened, but it had something to do with having to walk a really, really long way back from the shopping mall. In fact, she had been so mad that she had even used the naughty words he was never supposed to use. And, if he was not mistaken, his Uncle Vegeta's name popped up several times.

Gohan lunged for the blanket, hoping to be the first one there, but her human reflexes were still much slower than she was used to. Against a well-trained human like her mother, the teenager stood little chance.

"Oh no you don't, young lady!" the Son matriarch growled. "I did not go through all of that effort to get you in to an out of district school _twice_ for you to become a drop out! Now grab your book bag and _go_!"

"But I can't fly!" Gohan protested. "How am I supposed to get to school if I can't fly?"

Goku got to her feet and slapped the teenager on the back. "Use Nimbus!" she supplied. "Nimbus should be able to get you there in plenty of time!"

Gohan groaned. "I can't take a flying cloud to school!" she shot back. "What happens if someone sees me?"

"Then get Videl to come up with a cover story for you," Chi-Chi replied. "Goodness knows you can't come up with one on your own!"

The poor teenager felt like she was going to break down and cry. She had already been the new student at that school once before, and she very sincerely did not want to repeat that experience. A poor liar and painfully shy, Gohan was not looking forward to explaining her new identity to her friends and teachers. "Please," she softly pleaded one last time, "don't make me do this."

Chi-Chi sighed, but still did not relinquish her stance. "Gohan, I know this will be hard for you," she explained, "but finishing your education is extremely important. I want you to have teachers and proper structure and peers to learn with. You've done too much of your education from home. This is important." She adjusted the shirt on her firstborn, stood back, and smiled. "Just remember to go with whatever Videl says and you'll be fine."

Sticking out her lower lip in a pout, Gohan shouldered her book bag. "Fine," she grumbled. "I'll go commit social suicide, if that'll make you happy."

Rolling her eyes, the brunette mother shoved the teenager out the front door. "You'll be fine," she firmly commanded, giving the girl one final shove. "Now summon Nimbus and get going! No child of mine is going to be a tardy delinquent!"

"I got it!" Goku excitedly exclaimed, bounding outside with the family. "NIMBUS!"

With a squeak, Gohan found herself being shoved onto the magical cloud. She had never ridden Nimbus without knowing that either her father could catch her or she had the ability to fly, and she suddenly realized just why her mother hated riding on it. Looking hundreds of feet down, knowing that if she fell off there was nothing to save her, Gohan was downright terrified.

"I don't want to do this!" she cried, holding on to the front of the cloud for dear life. "I don't want to go to school! I don't want to be the new kid again! I don't want to be a girl! I don't want to fall off a cloud and die!"

The golden cloud seemed to pay the near hysterical girl no mind as it headed straight for their designated target. It took no time at all for Nimbus to be floating down on the high school roof, lowering slowly to let off the nervous passenger. Gohan cracked one eye open just barely and tentatively poked one foot off the edge. As soon as she was sure that there was something hard beneath her foot, she let out a sigh of relief and jumped off.

"Sorry, Nimbus," she genuinely apologized. "I'm just new at this."

The cloud simply took off into the morning sky, returning from whence it came and leaving the teenager to meet her fate. Adjusting her book bag, Gohan walked in the same rooftop door she did every day and tried her hardest to look confident.

She had only made it a short way into the main building before running into Sharpener. Gohan opened her mouth to say hi, but she quickly closed it and kept her eyes straight ahead, ignoring him. _I'm the new kid_, she reminded herself. _I can't look like I already know anyone here._

With practiced ease, she made her way to the main office and walked in. "Hi," she greeted, extending her hand to the lady at the front desk, "I'm new here, and I was hoping this is where I pick up my schedule."

"Oh, yes," the kindly old lady responded, adjusting her glasses. Ruffling through a stack of papers on the desk. "I just saw it a minute ago...ah, here it is!" The woman quickly produced a sheet of paper and handed it over. "Would you like someone to show you around, dearie? I'd hate for you to be lost on your very first day."

Gohan's eyebrows quirked slightly. The last time she had started at the school, she had been escorted directly to her first class and left to fend for herself. Was the change in behavior because of the gender or because the staff was short-handed last time? "Yes, thank you," she politely accepted. "A tour sounds perfect."

The woman at the counter nodded, smiling as she clicked her mouse. "I thought you might. Your teachers nominated a very special student to show you around. If you'll just take a seat, hon, she'll be here shortly."

A few minutes later, the door slid open and Erasa popped her head in. "Hi!" she chirped. "Um, Videl was called out a few minutes ago, so I'll be showing the new girl around." The ever perky blonde quickly approached the brunette. "Hi!" she chirped again. "My name's Erasa. What's yours?"

"Kit," Gohan quickly responded, shaking the girl's hand. It was not the greatest name in the world, but it sounded enough like 'kid' for her to respond to it. After all, the only things Gohan could ever remember going by were her given name, hey kid, and nerd-boy. It was the only one that sounded even slightly decent. "It's nice to meet you."

Still smiling brightly, Erasa snatched the schedule out of the new girl's hand. "Oh, this is perfect!" she announced. "You and I have matching schedules!"

_Must be the same one they give all new kids_, Gohan mused. It was identical to her old one.

"Tell you what," the blonde stated, putting one hand on her hip, "why don't I take you to first period right now, and I can show you around as the day goes?"

"Sure," Gohan agreed, standing up. "Thank you."

Erasa waved her off and giggled. "No worries," she assured. "By the way, love your top!"

Gohan glanced down and shrugged. She was wearing an olive green tank top and a simple pair of jeans. "Thanks," she accepted. "I, uh, just threw on the top thing in my drawers." She figured that her friend did not need to know that choosing the outfit had taken several hours. "Thank you for doing this."

"Hey, no problem!" the other girl chirped. "Now come on, our first period teacher can be an absolute beast if you're late, even if you have a valid excuse. And I hope they gave you the reading that's due today, because he's not going to let this being your first day excuse you from the pop quiz."

"We're having a quiz?" Gohan asked, genuinely surprised.

Erasa rolled her big brown eyes. "Oh, probably," she giggled. "He just lives for tests. He's not, like, married or anything, and without stuff to grade, I think he gets bored at night." The girl giggled to herself. "I swear, he needs to get laid!"

Gohan's eyes bugged out, but she did not say anything. Erasa had been helpful the last time Gohan had been a new student, but it had taken weeks for the girl to make jokes about sex with him. "So, um, he's that bad, huh?"

"Oh, the worst!" Erasa affirmed, guiding her through the halls. "But when you go in, pretend I didn't say anything. If he finds out that a student bad mouths him, he totally freaks out and flunks them on everything. He gives essay tests just so it'll be easier to give someone an F."

_Gee, and here I thought it was to make us think about the subject matter_, Gohan thought to herself in a sarcastic tone. "Well I guess it's good that I got the books early and my mom made me study."

"Oh, you've got a super strict parent too, huh?" Erasa asked, giving the taller girl a sympathetic look. "That's rough."

"Not really," Gohan honestly answered. "She just wants me to so the best I can. It's not that bad."

As Erasa offered a mild shrug, Gohan could not help but be astonished. Everything was so different than the last time she had started school. Not only were people more easy going with her, but she found herself having a much easier time giving out information. I guess it's just a matter of practice, the teenager thought.

She and her guide entered the familiar room of their first class of the day. While she almost went on autopilot to her old seat, Gohan willfully stopped herself beside the glaring teacher. "Please excuse the interruption," she politely offered, handing him the schedule. "This is my first day."

The teacher glowered at the girl and dismissed her with a wave. "Take any open seat," he grumbled, returning to his lecture. With a small hop in her step, Gohan made a beeline for her old desk. After all, it was not as though someone else was going to be occupying it.

"Guess you like the aisle," Erasa teased, sliding passed the new girl to her own seat. "Oh, and this is Sharpener."

Gohan blushed, taking Sharpener's hand and barely muttering a greeting. "I've got long legs," she replied, keeping her statements as truthful as possible. "They sometimes get cramped if I can't stretch them out."

"Well, don't get too comfy," Erasa offered, picking up her pencil. "That seat's normally Gohan's. He's out today, but he's going to be back."

_Not bloody likely_, thought Gohan, flipping open her brand new notebook. She frowned as she looked at it, genuinely missing the pages and pages of notes that had been taken through the semester. There was little more that Gohan disliked than hard work gone down the drain, and it was starting to feel like that was exactly what her entire school experience to that point had been. With a tired sigh, she began scribbling down as many words as she could.

She frowned as she went, noticing that her hand was starting to cramp fairly severely. Without Saiyan reflexes, note taking was hard! Gohan was well accustomed to that particular teacher and knew that many of the exam questions came from lectures that were never repeated. Copying down everything had never been an issue in the past, but she genuinely began to worry if she could maintain her flawless academic streak.

"Ow," she whimpered, stopping briefly to shake out the sore. As quickly as she could she got right back to it, but it only took a few seconds for the pain to return full force. Again she shook her hand out, and again it only took a few seconds later. Nervously, Gohan glanced at the clock at the head of the room. Her eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets as she realized that there were another twenty five minutes left in the class. "Oh, crap…"

Erasa giggled. "You keeping up alright?"

"Is there something you two would like to share with the class?"

The two girls both jumped in their seats, staring wide eyed at their teacher. "No, sir!" both of them quickly responded. Slumping down in their seats with their cheeks blazing red, Erasa and Gohan quickly got right back to work.

When there were only ten minutes left in the class, the door to the classroom swung open. "Sorry!" Videl called out, sprinting up the steps to her desk and sliding passed Gohan to take her seat. "I'm back."

The teacher offered her a disgruntled nod and went straight back to the lesson, allowing the exhausted girl to flip her notebook open. Videl was slightly scuffed up and she was breathing heavily, and sweat was running freely down her back. Gohan stared at her girlfriend, gawking at how worse for wear she was.

Watching them, Erasa giggled. "Oh, yeah, I totally forgot to mention that Videl Satan is in this class."

Both Gohan and Videl turned to the blonde, staring, but Videl recovered first. "Sorry, I was tired." She extended her gloved hand and took Gohan's in her own. "Hey, Videl Satan, welcome to class."

"Um, Kit," Gohan stammered, not actively responding to the hand shake.

"LADIES!" the teacher shouted. "One more outburst from any of you and you will be staying for an hour after school writing me an essay on etiquette and decorum! Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes, sir!" all three snapped. They began furiously taking notes again, and Gohan cringed as that pain in her hand kept coming back, faster and faster, stronger and stronger. By the time the bell rang at the end of the class, she honestly could not loosen her hand up. How she was going to be able to write at all for the rest of the day was well beyond her.

Forlornly, she looked back up at the clock. It was 9:15 in the morning. How was she possibly going to get through the rest of the day?


	9. Chapter 9

Gohan packed up her book bag and frowned. She had barely gotten through her first class, her hand was in absolute agony, and she was extremely concerned about what Videl had looked like when she had entered. The shorter girl looked like she had been in a hell of a fight, and Gohan did not like that one bit.

"Um, Kit?" Erasa asked with a tease in her voice. "The bell rang, and we can't really get out until you move…"

"Huh?" Gohan responded, a little surprised. "Oh, yeah. Sorry about that."

Erasa giggled. "No worries," she assured. "New day jitters are totally natural. You should have seen our last new kid on his first day. He got so nervous that he had an anxiety attack and left class for, like, half an hour."

Videl turned to her blonde friend and frowned. "That's not what happened with Gohan," she defended.

"Oh, right," Sharpener added, tossing his own bag over his shoulder. "Everyone takes that long in the bathroom. Face it, the kid gets nervous and leaves to calm down." When Videl shot him a glare, Sharpener held his hands up defensively. "Hey, don't get me wrong! The guy's my friend, too! I'm just saying that he has…what are they called?"

"Panic attacks," Erasa explained, getting to her feet.

"Yeah, those things."

Gohan twitched slightly as she stood up. She had no idea that her friends thought that her disappearing acts were from anxiety issues, but she supposed it was probably for the best. In fact, it sounded far less embarrassing than being stuck in the bathroom for other reasons for twenty minutes at a time. She led the pack of them down the stairs and out into the hallway, taking a breath to compose herself. "So, where are we going next?"

Videl reached over and plucked the schedule out of her love's hand, studying it quickly. "Huh, same schedule," she mused. "Well, we've got PE next." She cast the tall girl a concerned glance. Gohan had always stood out miserably in that class. Due to a childhood void of traditional activities and sports, the half-Saiyan had known virtually nothing about games the rest of them had been playing for years. The only thing that had saved the poor guy had been super human strength and agility. As a human girl, Gohan had lost her only edge.

"Okay," Erasa cheerfully said, grabbing the new girl by the hand, "the locker room is this way. Let's see if we can score you a good one."

Gohan and Videl both froze. Neither one of them had thought about the locker room situation.

Erasa staggered and realized that the new girl was not following her. "Hey, come on!" she laughed. "You don't want to be late. The teacher will make you run extra laps if you are."

"What?" Gohan nervously asked. She could not come up with a valid reason to not follow, and there was no way she could come up with a good lie on the spot.

Videl quickly racked her mind for a possible solution. "Oh, you didn't bring PE clothes with you, did you?" she loudly asked, praying that her love would take the hint and follow along.

It took the tall girl a second to figure it out, but she quickly nodded. "Um, yeah," she sheepishly said.

Erasa frowned. "Oh, okay." She studied Gohan carefully. "Well, it's your first day, so the teacher will probably just let you play in that. Besides, it's not like you can't run around in jeans." She dropped the girl's hand and started down the hallway. "Hey, Videl, since you just go to class in your normal clothes too, can you take her in? I gotta change."

"Not a problem," Videl assured. "We'll meet you two out there."

As the two blondes walked away, Gohan let out a little whimper. "What the hell am I going to do?"

Videl shrugged. "I don't know," she whispered back, watching the hallway empty out completely. "Maybe you can just come to school in clothes you can use in PE."

"Coach doesn't allow that for anyone but you!" Gohan hissed back. "The rest of us always have to change _something_, and I have a feeling that disappearing into a bathroom stall is not going to do me any good trying to blend in!"

One of Videl's eyebrows rose. "Is that what you did in the guy's locker room?"

A furious blush raced across Gohan's cheeks. "Shut up!" she returned. "Besides, I could at least get _in_ the locker room then. I can't go in now!"

Videl bit her lower lip as the only realistic solution came to mind. "Listen," she explained, maintaining what little calmness she could, "you might just have to go in." When Gohan looked like he was going to have a stroke, Videl's fists clenched at her sides. "Believe me, I don't like it any more than you do. In fact, I probably like it less. But if you want any chance of blending in at all, you're going to have to…go in and change with the girls for the next two months."

Gohan's expression slowly shifted from one of horror to one of mischief. "Can I get a locker next to yours?" she slyly asked.

Videl punched the former boy in the shoulder. "You're not going to let that one go until you see me without a shirt, are you?"

"What?" Gohan defended. "You'll see mine as much as I see yours!"

"No, you'll see less," Videl countered with her own smirk. "I don't change, remember? All I do is put my bag in my PE locker."

Letting out a small wail, Gohan whined, "I can't win!"

Videl frowned. "Listen," she gently told her partner, "we'll come up with something, but we really need to get out there now." She grabbed the former boy with her dirty hand and started to pull her toward the field, but Gohan did not budge.

"What happened to you?" Gohan gently asked.

"Huh?" Videl looked down at her scuffed up outfit. "Oh, this? It's nothing, Gohan."

"No, it's not," Gohan pushed. "I know you were out on a call."

Videl rolled her eyes. "I know where you're going with this, and you can stop right there," she instructed. "No, I don't have you dressed in your costume to take a bullet for me, but I was doing this alone long before you ever walked in to my life. It's not as easy, but I can do it just fine."

Gohan frowned. "I don't like it, Videl."

"I don't doubt that," the shorter girl returned, "but you're just going to have to deal with it. This is my job, Gohan, and I'm not going to stop just because you're not a superhero for a little while. You can help me to your heart's content when this is all over, but until then, you are going to have to trust that I know what I'm doing."

As long as Gohan had known Videl, she had been putting herself into harm's way for her job. She did not like the idea of her girlfriend going in without help. It was too dangerous.

The frown stayed on her face all the way to the field.

/

Goten walked around the living room for what felt like the millionth time. He was bored out of his mind. He had already finished his lessons for the morning, and normally he got to train after that, but his mommy said she was too busy to train with him at the moment. The little boy had tried to get his dad to train with him, but that idea had been shot down even faster by his mom. She had said something about new power levels and getting used to things that Goten had not fully understood, but the boy got the end message loud and clear. No training.

The television was broken, so he could not watch cartoons, and he was bored with his books and comics. With Gohan gone, his mother busy, and his father doing weird stuff as a girl, there was nobody to play with.

Inspiration struck the little boy and he smile, bounding over to the telephone. If no one could play with him at home, he would have to find someone else who would. Dialing the number he knew by heart, Goten eagerly awaited an answer. "Hi!" he gushed the moment it was picked up. "Can you come play with me?"

"Uh, not really, Goten," Trunks forlornly responded. "I'm grounded from now until Dad forgives me."

Goten's smile faltered. "Oh," he answered. "How long do you think that will take?"

Trunks sighed. "Oh, I say Dad will get over this about half an hour after I'm dead, give or take ten minutes."

"So, no playing at _all_ until then?" Goten squawked. "No! That can't happen! If you can't play, _I_ can't play! I don't want to never get to play anymore! I like to play! We need to do something about this, Trunks!"

"I _can't_ do anything," the elder of the pair bit out. "Goten, you have no idea how much trouble I am in right now. Seriously, I think the only reason Dad hasn't murdered me yet is because we turned him into a human and he'd need a weapon to do it, and I'm pretty sure he's building one now. My parents are _mad_ at me."

Goten frowned, fiddling with the phone's cord in his fingers. "What, because of the wish?" he asked.

"Of course, dummy!" Trunks shouted back. "What else would they be mad about?"

"I dunno, you get in trouble a lot," Goten sincerely answered.

"Yeah," Trunks darkly growled, "but somehow, I always end up being the _only_ one in trouble."

Goten blinked. "What?"

"As I seem to recall," the little prince angrily bit out, "this entire stupid thing was _your_ idea, not mine. And I don't mind getting in trouble when I know that it was _my_ fault and that it was _my_ idea, but this isn't fair! I didn't plan to get the dragon balls, I told you it was a bad idea, and I didn't make the stupid wish! So why am _I_ in trouble but it sounds like _you're_ not in any trouble at all? This was _your fault_. I shouldn't be in this much trouble for _your_ stupid plan!"

Goten winced. "Gee, Trunks, I didn't mean to get you in trouble," he genuinely responded. "And I was in trouble for a little while…"

"For what, ten minutes?" the young heir snapped. "Your mom scolded you and then got over it like always? Did you even, like, go to bed without dinner or something?"

"What?" the younger boy asked. "No, why?"

The phone in Trunks' hand fractured slightly as he fought to keep his temper in check. "You know what, Goten?" he finally said. "Even if I _could_ play today, I still wouldn't go!"

The hurt in Goten's eyes was clear. "But why, Trunks?" he pleaded.

"Because I don't want to play with someone who gets _me_ in trouble for _his_ stupid ideas and then gets off free and _leaves_ me to _suffer_!"

Goten jumped back at the sound of the phone being slammed down on the receiver, and the tears were in his eyes instantly. He dropped the phone completely, letting it bounce lazily against the wall, as he crumpled to the floor and began to cry.

A few seconds later, both of his parents were there. "Honey, what's wrong?" Chi-Chi asked, hugging her youngest son.

"Trunks hates me!" the little boy wailed.

"Oh, I'm sure that's not true," Goku responded, running her fingers through the boy's hair. "You and Trunks are even closer than me and Krillen. I'm sure you guys will be fine."

"No we won't!" Goten cried. "He's mad at me because I got him in trouble!"

Chi-Chi hugged the boy again. "Well, the two of you did something you knew you weren't supposed to do," she patiently explained. "It's only natural that you two would end up in trouble."

But Goten shook his head. "No," he pitifully whimpered, "he got in _real_ trouble. His mom and dad are really, really mad at him, and he says he's going to be in trouble for a long, long time and that it's all my fault!"

The Son matriarch was on her feet in an instant. "Goten, go to your room!"

Both Goku and Goten stared at the woman, thoroughly confused. "What?" they asked in unison.

"Goten, you are hereby grounded until told otherwise!" she firmly announced.

An enormous grin broke out on Goten's face. "For real?" he asked. He rushed over and hugged his mother lovingly. "You're the bestest mom _ever!_" The little boy did not miss a beat as he bounded up to his room, closing the door behind him.

Goku, still confused, looked at her wife. "Um, what just happened?"

Chi-Chi sighed, wiping her hands off on her apron. "I don't doubt for a second that Trunks is in some serious trouble over this," she sadly explained. "He usually is the ringleader in the little schemes, and he is usually the one who drags Goten into it. Plus, I have a feeling that Vegeta is a lot angrier about the wish than you are."

Goku shrugged. "Well, I wouldn't have made it if I had a choice," she casually put in, "but as long as it's happening, I might as well enjoy it."

"And when was the last time you heard Vegeta have that kind of attitude toward anything?" Chi-Chi pointed out.

"Ah, I get it," Goku answered. "But that still doesn't tell me why Goten would be happy to be in trouble."

Chi-Chi picked up the fallen telephone, dusting it off slightly before putting it back on its cradle. "He was probably talking to Trunks," she deduced, taking a step back, "and I have a feeling Trunks is mad that he's the only one in trouble. Goten felt guilty about it."

"So grounding Goten made him feel less guilty," Goku finished up. "I get it now." She frowned, though, as she thought about something. "It's not fair."

"Goku, I know you don't like it when I punish the boys…"

"No, not that," Goku interrupted. "I mean, I think Trunks might be right. It's not fair that Trunks is in more trouble than Goten is. This one really is mostly Goten's fault, from the sounds of it."

Chi-Chi frowned. "I can't control what Bulma and Vegeta do with Trunks," she pointed out. "Believe me, I've tried."

Letting out a small huff, Goku scratched her chin. "We need to make it fair."

Chi-Chi rolled her eyes and adjusted her bun. Half the reason she rarely gave Goten more than a scolding was because the boy was so sensitive that it was usually as much punishment as the boy could take. Anything more than that and the boy would often shut down. Making Goten nonfunctional was not going to end up teaching him the lesson. Or, for that matter, let any chores get done until the punishment ended. "It's a matter for each family," she sighed, heading back out to continue hanging the laundry.

But Goku was not going to give up. She liked things to be fair, and one way or another, she would make it just that.


	10. Chapter 10

Krillen sat on the beach, sighing miserably. How she was going to spend months as a weak woman was beyond her. If they had just made her a chick, that would have been fine. If they had made her just like her wife, that could have been fantastic. But no, that would have been too much for fate to grant the former monk. What power she had was stripped from her, and unlike the others who were altered, she did not come out with a slamming hot body.

Just as she had been as a man, Krillen was somewhere between plain and odd looking. And while she had been able to make it work for her as a male, it appeared that it was going to be next to impossible as a female. She could not say anything about that, though. Eighteen had made that clear. One word about it would have the blonde accusing her of being shallow and superficial, and that was just not something Krillen wanted to deal with.

Worse than that, her fighting skills were diminished to the point of non-existence. There was some anomaly in her genes before that allowed her to harness power and excel to levels that the vast majority of the human race could not even dream of. It appeared, though, that the dragon had 'corrected' that particular 'flaw'.

That power had meant a lot to Krillen. It had been the one thing that made her feel like more than just a freak of nature. She was short, she had no nose, and her social skills lacked finesse, but as far as human fighters were concerned, she was the best. That was what made her special. That was what made her feel useful. It was the only skill she had.

Sitting there, alone on the beach, Krillen wondered just what she was going to do until this problem was resolved.

From inside the house, Marron frowned. Her daddy had been so sad over the last couple of days, and she did not like that one bit. Taking a few seconds to straighten out her blonde pigtails, the little girl turned to her room to set up a way to make her daddy feel all better.

/

"No."

Goku froze, wondering how her wife had caught her. "Uh, yes, sweetums?"

Chi-Chi did not even look up from her mending. "You are not going out there and that's final."

"This is so unfair!" Goku pouted, walking away from the front door. "All I want to do is go for a walk in the woods. What's wrong with that?"

Maintaining focus on the trousers she was working on, Chi-Chi did not so much as raise an eyebrow at the behavior. "We went over this, Goku. You don't know what you can and cannot do in that body yet. I know that you're not an infant, and I know you are still decently aware of your surroundings, but until you have a full understanding of the limitations you have now, it is just foolish to let you go out on your own."

"Then don't let me go alone," the new woman challenged. "I'll take Goten with me."

"Goten's grounded," the mother pointed out, barely sparing a glance. "Remember?"

"Oh, yeah." Goku frowned again. Staying inside was already starting to drive her crazy, and if she did not get out soon she was going to have to do something drastic. "Okay, so how about this: Goten is still grounded, but he's on protective duty to make sure I don't get hurt. That way, he's just doing a job for me, not playing."

The corner of Chi-Chi's mouth turned up as she checked over her handiwork. "Well, you'll have to ask him," she teased, "but I don't see the harm." Assured that she had done a good job, she turned to face her husband head on. "But you need to promise me you're not going to try any schemes while you're out there."

With a clearly faked look of shock, Goku placed a hand on her chest. "Chi-Chi!" she admonished. "Why would you think I was going to do something like that?"

"First of all, I've met you before," the brunette mother pointed out. "Secondly, you were trying to sneak out two minutes ago. And third, you were starting to plan something earlier this morning and I think our family is in enough trouble, thank you very much."

"But…"

"No schemes!" Chi-Chi firmly commanded. "If you're going for a walk, fine, but nothing more than that!"

Goku pouted her lips and crossed her arms. "I'm not totally useless now, you know!"

"I didn't say you were," Chi-Chi sighed, turning to face her husband completely. "There's still a lot you can do. The problem is that you don't know what you _can't_ do yet. It's a huge change for you, Goku. You need to get used to it before it'll be safe to go out on your own."

Though she was still not happy about being treated like an invalid, Goku could concede the point. Just that morning she had bruised parts of her legs by jumping out the window to get to the outdoor bath. The balance she had been accustomed to was gone, and she had fallen over onto her knees. "Fine," she grumbled. "I'll scheme later. But I'm taking Goten with me now!"

"That's fair," Chi-Chi agreed, getting to her feet. "I'll go tell Goten."

"Hey!" Goku retaliated. "It's my idea, why do you get to tell him?"

"Because you try to sneak him out so often he'll think that you're lying," the mother calmly pointed out, ascending the stairs. "And Goten knows that at the end of the day, Mommy's word is law."

Goku wanted to fight back, but once again, she saw the reasoning. Goten was still getting used to having Goku around, and in that time, the pureblooded Saiyan had tried to undermine Chi-Chi a couple of times. Goten really did see Chi-Chi as the ultimate authority. "Fine," Goku eventually grumbled, slumping down on the couch.

Chi-Chi had to suppress a giggle at her husband's behavior. The change was putting some stress on them, but all things considered, Chi-Chi knew that her husband was getting off easy. That carefree personality that had carried Goku all her life was what would carry her through. Spending a couple weeks in protective custody was not going to kill the former Saiyan.

/

"Vegeta, let me in!" Bulma hollered, pounding at the door.

"Absolutely not!" came the clearly bitter reply.

With an angry huff, Bulma pounded the door again. "I said I was sorry for making fun of you!" she shouted. "Now open the damn door!"

"No!"

Her cheeks flushed a brilliant scarlet, Bulma kicked the closed door and stormed down the hallway. After she had gotten Trunks to pick her up from the mall, Bulma had returned home to find that the majority of her things from her bedroom were in the hall, nicely topped with one blanket and one pillow. When she had attempted to climb over the pile of stuff to open the door, she was not entirely surprised to find it was locked. Not one to be easily deterred, the heiress had picked the lock, set on getting into her bedroom. However, it appeared that something large had been shoved in front of the door, and Bulma could not even make it budge.

Furious rounds of swearing had commenced on her side, but Vegeta had remained totally silent. Nothing pissed off the blue haired woman more than being ignored, and the former Saiyan was all too happy to do it.

Spending the night in the guest room had not left Bulma a happy camper, and after a round of coffee and a quick breakfast, she had run right back to fight her way into her own bedroom. She had been at it for four hours, and while she did not see victory in her immediate future, she had at least gotten Vegeta to yell back.

Her frustration was getting the best of her, though, and she determined that she needed a break. It was time for lunch anyway, and if she was going to succeed in getting herself back inside, she would need a level head.

As she programmed the microwave to fix her frozen lunch, Bulma could not help but be impressed by her husband's ingenuity. There was no way Vegeta could have beaten her home by more than a few minutes, since Trunks flew far faster than the car. And yet, in that short time, the former prince had managed to evict almost all of her things and move what had to be an enormous dresser in front of the door. Given her severe drop in power, it must have been a tremendous feat.

"What can I do to get him to let me in?" she wondered aloud. "I don't want to sleep in a guest room for the next few months!"

That was when a thought dawned on her. Vegeta had completely holed up in the bedroom. While there was plenty of water in the attached bathroom, but there was very little food. Bulma had a private junk food stash in there, but it could not possibly sustain the pouting princess for that long.

A wicked smirk crossed the heiress' face. She did not have to fight her way in. She did not have to manipulate her way in. She would not even have to break her way in. All she had to do was sit and wait. And there was one great way to speed the process along. Her idea quickly coming to life, Bulma picked up the phone and called her strongest ally.

An hour and a half later, Bulma stood triumphantly on the pile in front of her bedroom door. "Oh Vegeta!" she called out in a singing voice. "I have a surprise for you!"

A dark growl came from the other side of the door, and the heiress smirked in triumph. She was already in the lead, and she was confident that she would be victorious soon.

"These chocolate peanut butter cookies are fresh from my mother's oven," she teased through the door. "They're just so hot and fresh…" She took a bite out of one and moaned slightly at the flavor. "They just melt in my mouth."

Footsteps sounded on the other side, and Bulma knew her husband well enough to know that she was pacing and trying to maintain composure. Cracking would happen at any moment.

"Of course, they can't stay that way forever," she added with a mock pout. "I mean, cookies can only be fresh for so long before they cool off completely, and then they're just not as heavenly." Another bite went in to her mouth, along with another moan. "And if you're not out fairly soon, there just might not be any cookies left for you. Trunks and I could just finish them off, leaving nothing but crumbs for you."

More footsteps and Bulma was practically giddy. She placed one hand firmly on her hip and popped her hip to the side, assuming her victory pose as she waited for the door to open. However, her smirk faltered when a few seconds passed without any indication that the furniture was being moved. Straining her ears, Bulma heard the unmistakable sound of her husband cursing in her native language.

A small scuffle sounded, and Bulma braced herself. That was not nearly enough noise for that dresser to move. "What the…"

"You want to fight dirty, woman?" Vegeta hollered through the door. "Fine by me."

"Vegeta?" Bulma called back, trying not to let her concern show in her voice. "What are you doing?"

The heiress could practically hear the smirk coming across the door. "I hold in my left hand," her husband announced, "that damn dress you keep talking about."

Bulma's eyes were instantly enormous. "No…"

"And in my right hand," the princess continued, "I have your lighter."

"Don't you dare, you son of a bitch!" Bulma shouted. "I swear, Vegeta, if you set that dress on fire, I will throttle you!"

A dark chuckle came out. "Then you have no choice but to stand down."

However, compromise was never a trait either of them happened to be particularly gifted with. "If you so much as set one thread on fire," Bulma screamed, "then I will permanently wire the gravity room to play that Barney song any and every time you turn it on!"

"If you do that, then you can kiss your motorcycle goodbye," Vegeta growled back.

"If you try _that_," Bulma hollered, "then I won't sleep with you for a month!"

"I'm a woman now, you moron," Vegeta returned. "We weren't going to be doing that anyway!"

Bulma's eyes bugged out. Her ace in the hole for the entirety of her relationship with Vegeta was the withdrawal of sex. It was the one card she could hold over his head. Tampering with the gravity machine could sometimes work, but he had ways to train without it if he was determined enough. But the sex card…what was she going to do without her greatest weapon?

"Fine," she shouted back. "I might have been open to trying something new with you, but if you're going to be that way, then enjoy a year of celibacy!"

Bulma clearly heard the snort through the door. "We're changing this back before the end of the year, you moron," the princess called out. "We're getting to Namek as soon as possible."

"And how are you going to do that without me?" Bulma challenged back. When silence was the only response, the heiress felt a new hope rising in her chest. That was her new power play. Without her, there would be no way to wish them back to how they were without waiting the full year. "You need my help, missy, and until you let me back in, I'm not going to even start on that spaceship."

"You wouldn't do that," Vegeta shot back. "No matter how mad you are at me, you'd never screw over your idiot friends like that."

It was Bulma's turn to snort. "I thought you knew me better than that, Vegeta," she shouted. "I would screw over every person I ever met if it meant getting a leg up on you."

"And you think I'm going to be the one having a tough time being celibate?"

Kicking the door again, Bulma grunted angrily. "Could you keep your mind out of the gutter for just ten minutes?"

"Why? You won't."

Letting out a frustrated shriek, Bulma kicked the door yet again. "Damn it, Vegeta!" she screamed. "I said I was sorry!"

Silence was again her reward, but this time, Bulma did not see a victory in it. Vegeta was back in control, and that meant the silent treatment was back on. Any ground Bulma might have gained was gone. Angry as a hornet whose nest had just been kicked, the heiress stormed down to her lab. Perhaps there was something in there she could use to get her way in. Maybe she could use a laser to disintegrate the door and the dresser. Maybe she could design some kind of device that could relocate matter. Maybe she could…

She was three steps in the door before she smacked herself on the forehead. "God, I am such an idiot!" she growled. It took ten seconds for her to grab the tool she needed, and in no time at all, she was once again standing outside her bedroom. Working furiously, the heiress made her way through her goal and the door was off its hinges. "Gotta love the screwdriver," she smirked, giving her tool a kiss. Gently lowering the dislocated door, Bulma kicked off her socks and prepared to climb over the dresser.

However, there was not just a dresser in her way. There was a mountain of stuff so high that it blocked the doorway completely. "Son of a bitch!" she shouted. Furiously, she leaned forward and shoved a section of it with all her body weight, only to discover that it was surprisingly solid. "Are you kidding me?"

"I will not be defeated!" Vegeta shouted back.

Bulma jumped up and grabbed a loose corner she saw, pulling as hard as she could. When she saw the barest hind of a wiggle, she relentlessly harassed it, willing it to drop. It took a while, but she managed to free that one object. Once again, she had leeway. With one open hole in the design, Bulma began wildly jumping up and pulling one object out at a time, tearing down the wall.

"Damn it!" Vegeta growled, quickly figuring out what was happening to her wall. Just as frantically as Bulma was tearing down the wall, Vegeta began to reinforce it. Saiyan or human, man or woman, Vegeta did not go down without a fight. For almost two hours, the two continued ferociously battled one another.

However, the supplies in the room were limited, and Vegeta found herself running low on ammunition. "No!" she shouted. "You are not getting in here!"

"Yes I am!" Bulma screamed back. The bulk on the dresser was low enough for her to attempt climbing it, and she wasted no time at all pulling herself up. Using the doorframe for support, she managed to get both of her feet on top of the furniture.

But Vegeta was determined to fight to the bitter end. Seeing her wife's attempt to enter, she quickly mimicked the movement, getting up just a little bit faster. "No!" she grunted, keeping her hands slightly wider than Bulma's. Fiercely, she swiped a leg underneath her wife to knock her off of the dresser.

Bulma shrieked slightly as her foot swung free, but she tightened her grip on the frame and used her rocking momentum to slam her free foot into her husband's stomach. Vegeta grunted hard, the air forced out of her lungs by the action, but she refused to give up. Clenching her muscles tightly, she wrapped both of her legs around her wife's waist. She pulled back, startling Bulma, before swinging forward as hard as she could. At the highest point of her arc, she used her thigh muscles to launch Bulma clear across the hall.

Bulma landed with a grunt and took a moment to gather her bearings. She had never engaged in physical competition with Vegeta before. Their power differences were so vast that it would have been dangerous for them to try. However, without that being an issue, Bulma was actually rather enjoying the fight.

Her joy quickly dissipated, though, when she realized that Vegeta had scurried out and started to launch building supplies back into the bedroom. "Oh, no you don't!" Bulma shouted. Rushing at full force, she tackled her husband and brought her to the ground.

As Vegeta was slammed into the ground, she found herself stunned by her wife's aggression. Had she still been male, it would have been one hell of a turn on. But that was not the case, and the war was on. Vegeta crossed her thighs, tightened her abs, and flipped herself around, knocking Bulma off. Before the heiress could recover, the princess climbed on top and quickly earned the pin.

"I win," she purred into her wife's ear.

"Not yet!" Bulma growled, thrashing underneath. However, even without her Saiyan powers to back her up, Vegeta knew perfectly well how to keep someone down. Bulma could not escape. The cursing, though, flowed freely from her mouth as she kept trying.

As Vegeta began taunting her, keeping her pinned in spite of her writhing, they heard a young throat clear. "Um, are you guys okay?"

Bulma and Vegeta snapped their heads to the side, seeing their son staring at them. They were lying in the hallway, their room blocked by a dresser, surrounded by piles and piles of their personal possessions, and definitely in a compromising position. "Oh, honey!" Bulma panted, more than tired from the two hour fight. "What are you doing here?"

"I, uh, heard you guys making a lot of noise," he stammered out, unable to tear his eyes away from the scene. "It sounded normal at first, but then it got weird, and I wanted to make sure you were okay…"

"We're fine!" Vegeta growled, breathing equally as hard and turning back to her wife. She was not about to let an interruption cost her a victory, and she knew her wife would try.

Trunks checked his mother's expression for confirmation, and it only took one glance to know that it was time to flee. He had seen similar looks a thousand times before, and it always came right before they did something he wanted to stay as far away from as possible.

As the boy turned to leave, Bulma bucked under her husband. "Get off!"

"Mind still in the gutter?" Vegeta taunted back.

Bulma stared at her husband, blinking and panting, before she threw her head back and laughed. It was ridiculous. Every aspect of the past few days had been ridiculous, but this just took the cake. It was just too much to keep to herself anymore, and she could not have stopped that laughter if she had tried.

A moment later, Vegeta smirked and began to chuckle. She, too, knew how absurd the entire fight was, and she, too, thought it was hysterical.

"Truce?" Bulma laughed.

"Temporary," Vegeta chuckled back. Even if she would never bow out of a fight completely, she was in a fair amount of pain and almost as tired as her wife. She had been living off of water and gummi bears since returning home from the mall, and if nothing else, she embraced the opportunity to replenish her stock before holing up again.

"Forgive me?" the heiress tried.

Vegeta snorted, getting to her feet. "Never."

"Ass."

"Bitch."

Letting out a fresh laugh, Bulma grabbed her husband's arm and pulled herself to her feet. "You know, that was kind of fun."

"Hn," Vegeta agreed, scanning the hall for something. Bulma was about to ask what the other woman was looking for, but before she could voice her questions, the princess dug out the chocolate peanut butter cookies and took a bite out of one. "I win."

"Hey, give me one!" the heiress demanded, snatching at the plate. Playfully struggling over the plate, the couple made their way down the stairs. It was the closest they had been since the wish had been made.

From around the corner, Trunks just stared. He had thought his parents could not possibly have gotten weirder. Apparently, he was wrong.

Very, very wrong.


	11. Chapter 11

Gohan put her head down on her desk. That one day at school had been absolutely brutal, and she still had two classes left to go. She was exhausted, she was stressed, and she had been writing so much so fast that she was starting to doubt that she would ever be able to open her hand completely again. "You have got to be freaking kidding me," she groaned, her forehead planted firmly on the desk. "I still have advanced chem and history after this?"

Videl offered her girlfriend a reassuring smile. "Hey, you'll be fine," she gently told the tall girl. "It won't be that bad."

"Wow, Videl!" Erasa laughed, shouldering her book bag. "I don't think I've ever seen you take to a new kid this fast! I mean, you glommed on to Gohan pretty quick, but even _that_ took a few days, and he's your soul mate!"

The indigo eyed fighter looked away and blushed furiously. "I'm just being nice," she grumpily defended. "You told me I had to nicer, and I'm being nicer."

"Yeah, but for you, this is impressive!" the blonde teased.

Gohan kept her face buried on her desk, desperately wishing that she could just die from embarrassment. School alone was bad enough, but listening to her friends getting on Videl's case and not being able to defend her was miserable. As she tried to will her face back to its natural color, she wondered just how her day could possibly get any worse.

"Speaking of nerd boy," Sharpener interjected, walking down the staircase, "where the hell is he today? I haven't heard from him in a few days."

"Must be sick," Erasa assumed as she adjusted her tube top. "I know he's a hard core student, but he's only human."

_You have no idea_, Gohan mused to herself. With a heavy sigh, she sat up and brushed her long bangs from her eyes. "I guess we should probably get to class."

"Seriously," the blond boy pushed on. "Where's Gohan today? He was supposed to help me get ready for that epic math test tomorrow."

Letting out a tired sigh, Videl shook her head. "Gohan's not going to be around for a while," she told her friends. She was never a fabulous liar, but she had been practicing that speech several dozen times to make sure it came off as convincing. After all, it would not do to have their classmates know that the new girl used to be the new boy. "His grandfather got really sick, and his family's taking care of him."

"Oh, that's so sad!" Erasa said. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Don't know yet," Videl answered. "But either way, it's going to be a while. Gohan's mom arranged for him to take all his classes online until they're back, but until then, he's practically being home schooled."

"Well that sucks," Sharpener sympathetically said. "You think there's anything we can do to help? I've got boxing this afternoon, but I can skip out on a practice this week."

Videl shook her head. "Doubt it," she told them. "They need to keep things fairly calm over there right now, so they probably shouldn't have visitors. I'm sure if there's something we can do, he'll let us know."

"Poor Gohan," Erasa said, pushing the classroom door open. "Well, the next time you see him, make sure to let him know that we're here if he needs us."

"Yeah," Sharpener added.

Walking behind them, Gohan was slightly stunned. While he had considered Sharpener and Erasa to be his friends, they had not particularly struck him as the sort to offer assistance so quickly. Honestly, they had both come off as fairly vain and self-centered. They were not mean by any stretch of the imagination, but they had always been somewhat self-involved. Hearing them willing to drop their activities to come to his aid was surprising, but extremely comforting. He had never actually known that they had cared that much.

As she considered her friends' actions, she missed the look Erasa gave her. "You'll like Gohan," she told the girl known as Kit. "He's kind of a nerd, but he's sweet."

"Yeah, but I think he's artistic," Sharpener said in a knowing tone.

Beside him, Videl rolled her eyes. "The word you're trying to think of is _autistic_, genius, and Gohan's not."

But Sharpener shot her a look. "You sure?" he countered. "I know he's your boyfriend, but I've read about these guys who are super geniuses in math and science and stuff but have, like, no clue how to react in social things. And it comes in different levels. I don't know about you, but I think that sounds like Gohan."

Gohan turned bright red in an instant. _Fantastic_, she miserable thought. _Not only am I a nerd to them, but I'm also autistic and prone to anxiety attacks. Seriously, Gohan, stick out more!_

"You know what that's also a sign of?" Videl shot back. "Being a super genius who grew up in an isolated environment. You know he grew up in the mountains, Sharpener. And he told all of us that we were the first friends he had that were his own age. Is it really a shocker that he's a little out of it when it comes to social experience?"

"Touché," Erasa giggled. "Anyway, this is where we branch apart. All you guys want to meet up at the end of the day for some caffeinated goodness?"

Videl reached out and grabbed Gohan by the backpack, giving it a very slight tug to make sure that she held attention. "Make it at four. I've got time booked in the gymnasium for an hour after school."

Gohan quirked an eyebrow at her girlfriend, taking the message in loud and clear. "Oh, yeah, four sounds great," she softly said.

"Great," Videl answered, giving Gohan a wink the others could not see. "See you after school then."

More than slightly intrigued, Gohan slid in to her class. She had no idea what Videl had planned for them to do in the gym, but she knew she was not supposed to miss it. _I wonder what it could be…_

/

Krillen heard the screen door swinging closed behind her, but she did not bother turning around. She was really not in the mood for company, and quite frankly, she was sick of people trying to force it on her. The change was still fairly recent, and it was taking her time to adjust. Why could they not understand that? Why was it so hard to get that she just wanted to be left alone for a day or two? She was not asking for much, and it was really bothering her that no one could get it.

She heard the soft footfalls of someone approaching from behind in the sand, but still she refused to turn. She felt that she had been a damn good sport about a _lot_ of things over the course of her life, and she had earned the right to sulk a little on this one thing.

The footsteps retreated fairly quickly, and the door swung open and shut again. Krillen sighed and relaxed slightly, hoping that whoever was behind her had gotten the clue and would stay away. But that hope was short lived as he heard the door open yet again. The tiny woman fought to keep from growling. She knew that her family just wanted to help, but it was really starting to get annoying. And the talk Roshi had given her about how she was in absolutely no danger of being peaked at had actually hurt more than it had helped. Roshi liked looking at almost anything with breasts, and if he was not interested in sneaking in a look, she really had to be unattractive. It had not helped her mood.

That door opened and closed several more times, and as that number rose, Krillen found herself fading from anger to curiosity. What the hell was going on? Slowly, she turned her head only to find an enormous pile of pink things sitting beside her. "What the hell?" she muttered.

The front door opened one last time, and Krillen watched his daughter stagger out with an enormous armload of her toys and dropping it on top of the pink mountain. "There," she finally said, taking a deep breath. "That's all of it."

"Um, honey?" Krillen asked, glancing at the little blonde girl. "What are you doing?"

With a confident look on her face, Marron began digging through the pile for something specific. "You're not happy," she pointed out in a self-assured tone. "And I am here to stop that."

A small frown appeared on Krillen's face. "Sweetie, that's really sweet of you, but…"

"Do you know why you're not happy, Daddy?" Marron asked. "I know why. Do you want to tell you why?"

The frown turned into the barest hint of a smile. While she was not entirely sure what the little girl was up to, but it was at least slightly amusing. "Well, if you know why I'm not happy, I think it would be very nice of you to tell me what's making me that way."

Marron nodded, continuing to dig. She was so deep in the pile that the only thing Krillen could see of her daughter was her sandal clad feet. "Just a sec, Daddy," she said, her voice muffled by the toys. She scrambled around for another minute, letting out some definitely annoyed sounds, before finally erupting from the pile of pink. "Got it!" she shouted with glee. As quickly as she could, Marron hopped over to her father. "You are sad because you don't know what you're doing."

Krillen gave her daughter a very confused look. "What?" she asked.

"You don't know how to be a girl!" Marron told her. "You've only ever been a boy before, and you made a very good boy, Daddy, but you're a girl now and you need to know how to be one." From behind her back, the little blonde produced her prize. "Step one: how to make a ponytail."

Krillen laughed and pulled her daughter into her arms. "Marron, honey, this is very sweet of you," she told the child, "but I don't know if I really need to know how to make a ponytail."

"Yes, you do," the girl insisted. "You need to know how to keep your very pretty hair out of your eyes, and since you're not part robot like Mommy is, your hair isn't going to stay where you want it without something to help you." Marron got on her tippy toes and began to run her hairbrush through her father's hair. "Now, this is step one of step one: brushing your hair."

"I know how to brush my hair," Krillen chuckled, patiently sitting as her daughter ran the brush along the dark hair. "Boys do that too, you know."

"Only some boys do," Marron contradicted, studying the hair she was working with. "Trunks brushes his hair, but Goten doesn't."

"Yeah, but I was one of the boys who brushed my hair," Krillen pointed out. "So I think we can skip step one of step one."

Marron considered that, and she nodded her head. "I guess you're right." She slid a hair tie off of her wrist and walked in front of her father. "Have you ever used one of these before?"

With a chuckle, Krillen shook her head. "I tried it once on you," she pointed out, "but you told me I did it wrong and that only your mom was allowed to do your hair."

"Oh, yeah…" the little blonde said, remembering that day well. "Well, you're a girl now, so you need to know this too." The first lesson went by fairly quickly, particularly since Krillen had secretly practiced the art obsessively after that attempt his daughter remembered. It had all started out well enough. Marron had asked for help putting her hair up, but since she had no experience at all, it had become an utter disaster. Krillen had felt so bad about her daughter's tears that she had stolen one of her dolls and practiced ponytails and braids over and over and over again. Though Marron had never asked for her assistance again, Krillen wanted to be ready if the need arose. Even Eighteen did not know about the secret skill.

Once Marron was satisfied with her father's skill, she tossed her brush onto the pile and dusted off her hands. "Okay," she cheerfully said, studying the pink. "Let me see…should we do dolls next, or dresses next?"

"Dolls!" Krillen quickly answered with a laugh. "Let's start with dolls!"

"A very good choice," the little blonde girl said with a smile.

Father and daughter spent the remainder of the afternoon together on the beach, with Marron teaching her father all that she knew about being a girl. She was sweetly serious in her mission, determined to make sure that her daddy had all the skills needed to be a happy girl. It was not the afternoon of sulking that Krillen had originally hoped to have. It was an infinitely better day full of joy with her daughter.

/

Gohan slid into the gymnasium timidly. "Hello?" she called out. "Videl? Are you here?"

"Yeah," the spunky fighter answered, coming from around the benches. "Here, put these on."

Gohan took the set of clothing from her girlfriend. "Okay, two questions: why, and where?"

Videl guided the tall girl around behind the bleachers. "There's no entrance that allows visual access to this corner," she assure the girl, "and I'll stand on lookout for you. If anyone comes in, I'll stall them long enough for you to finish changing." When she looked at the horrified look on Gohan's face, Videl could not help but laugh. "Trust me, I change in that corner all the time. You'll be fine."

"Okay," Gohan reluctantly responded. "I guess that makes sense. But why are we doing this?"

"You'll see," Videl teased. She turned her back on her girlfriend, offering what privacy she could. "Just holler when you're done."

It did not take long for Gohan to emerge, and Videl smiled at what she saw. The clothes were simple enough, just a pair of sweatpants and a decently snug shirt, but the blush going across Gohan's cheeks was just adorable. "Aw, aren't you cute?" she teased.

"You're not helping," Gohan mumbled, brushing her bangs away again.

Videl laughed and pulled something out of her back pocket. "Sorry," she told the taller girl. "Here, turn around and I'll help you with that." As Gohan quietly did as she was told, Videl wrapped a bandana around the girl's head. "I haven't actually done this for someone else before…"

Gohan's hands reached up and grabbed the ends, quickly tying the ends herself. "I got it," she assured. "I used to use these all the time when I trained with Piccolo." Once it was secured, she turned around and gave her girlfriend a curious look. "Now, what's going on?"

With a smirk on her face, Videl walked to the middle of the gymnasium and dropped into her stance. "We're going to spar!"


	12. Chapter 12

"Mommy!"

Chi-Chi groaned as she heard her youngest son call out to her. She had no problem helping him when he had a real problem, but that particular tone usually meant that he had 'discovered' something and would take the remainder of the day asking questions about his findings. If it went on for a few minutes, the dark haired mother would have found it cute. If it went on for an hour, she would have found it academically encouraging. But the marathon of questions that often fell upon her usually made it all the way to the _dear-God-can't-you-leave-well-enough-alone_ phase.

"Yes, sweetheart?" she responded. She knew it would lead to a headache, but she would still not deny her child.

"Um, I think we have a problem."

Well, that had not been expected. "Oh?" the mother called out, wiping her hands off on her apron. "What problem do you have?"

Sheepishly, Goten poked his head around the back of the house, peering at his mother beside the laundry. "Well, it's not really _my_ problem," he tried to explain. "I mean, I _know_ about the problem, but I'm not the one who has it."

Chi-Chi frowned slightly. "Whose problem is it?" she asked.

"Well," the little boy nervously responded, scratching the back of his head, "Daddy and I went for a walk, and that was a lot of fun, but we were up in the hills, and it's real bumpy up there, and I guess it's kinda steep if you can't fly, so...um…"

All of the color drained from Chi-Chi's face. "Is he okay?" she nervously asked. "Where is he?"

"Sorta," the child answered. "And I put Daddy on the couch. But could you look at Daddy's ankle? It doesn't really look right…"

That was as far as the little boy got before his mother was sprinting inside. "Goku!" she shouted, running as fast as she could to the living room. "Oh, honey, are you okay?"

"No!" the poor injured woman wailed, looking up at her wife from her position on the couch. "I am not okay! I got hurt _going for a walk!_ How is that even a little bit okay?"

Chi-Chi actually had to turn her face away to keep the giggle that had been forming from coming out. She genuinely felt bad for her husband, but there was something in the way the story was told that seemed downright adorable. "Well, let me take a look at this," she gently said. With practiced ease, she removed the sock without aggravating the wound any further. Sure enough, the ankle was swollen and turning purple. "Oh, honey, I think this might be broken."

"_What?_" Goku cried out, sitting up. "No! It can't be broken! It was a _walk!_"

"I'm pretty sure it is," Chi-Chi reluctantly answered. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Goten peering around the corner and watching his parents. "Goten, honey, I need your help getting Daddy into the car. I need to take him to the doctor."

Nodding, the little boy slid all the way into the room. He did not say a word as he assisted in his job. It took a few minutes to get Goku as comfortable as possible, but as soon as the woman was settled, the rest of the family piled in and took off.

The first five minutes of the car ride were completely silent before Chi-Chi finally broke the ice. "Okay, before we get to the doctor, we need to talk about something," she informed them in a no-nonsense tone. "When we get to the hospital, you both need to remember that there have been some changes to the family. Goku, you need to be ready to respond when they call you 'Miss'. You're a girl now, and they're going to treat you that way. Goten, honey, I know this might be hard for you, but you can't call Daddy 'Daddy' while we're there."

"Because Daddy's a girl now?" Goten asked.

"Absolutely right," the mother confirmed. "If you call Daddy 'Daddy', the doctors are going to get confused, and they won't be able to help as fast, so it's _very important_ that you keep that to yourself."

From the passenger's seat, Goku hissed. "Geez, that smarts," she whimpered.

"I don't doubt that," her wife sympathetically responded. "Your ankle looks like it hurts a lot. But when we get in there, let me do the talking. You just sit there and let them take care of you."

Goku's eyes were suddenly enormous. "They're not going to use _needles_ on me, are they?"

In the driver's seat, Chi-Chi cringed. Odds were high in the favor of requiring an injection of a local anesthetic in order to reset the bones in her husband's ankle, but if there was any way at all to accomplish it, she was going to keep that fact limited to herself and the doctors. "Oh, I don't know," she casually said. "I don't see why they wouldn't be able to just wrap it and give you some crutches." She was not happy about deceiving her husband, but the less Goku thought about needles, the safer everyone was going to be.

Still cringing, Goku nodded. Her ankle still hurt a lot, and she was sincerely hoping no one else would find out that she acquired her injury on an afternoon walk, but as long as there were no needles, she could get through it.

/

Erasa stared wide eyed through the door to the gymnasium. "Wow," she whispered. "Sharpener, you need to see this!"

"What?" the tall blond asked, approaching the girl.

"Videl is sparring with the new girl!" the giggly girl insisted, shoving her friend to the crack she had been peering through. "Check it out!"

With a quizzical look on his face, Sharpener looked into the gym. Within seconds, his eyes were enormous as he saw that not only were the two girls sparring, but they were fighting on top of a balance beam, and the new girl seemed to be holding her own decently well. The two fighting females were clearly saying something to one another between grunting and hitting, but the boy could not tell what, exactly, they were saying. "Holy crap!" he squeaked.

Inside the gym, Videl smirked as she dodged a kick from Gohan. "Nice extension!" she panted out in praise.

"Thanks," Gohan grunted, landing a swing to her girlfriend's midsection. "You're not doing such a bad job yourself!"

Videl recovered quickly and tried to sweep Gohan's legs out from underneath her, but the taller girl anticipated the move and countered well. However, after almost an hour of sparring with one another, both girls were well coated in perspiration, and sticking a landing on sweat coated bare feet was getting difficult. Though neither of them spoke it out loud, both of them were well aware that the fight was going to be ending shortly. Both of them were getting tired, and their grace and coordination was fading with fatigue.

Gohan grit her teeth, determined to be victorious. Videl was a good fighter, especially by human standards, but her training had never been taken half as seriously as Gohan's own. Her pride had taken a number of body blows over the past day, and she desperately needed a win.

Across from her, Videl was equally determined to come out on top. While she certainly admired Gohan's Saiyan strength, there was no denying that she was envious of the power gap. With Gohan suddenly a human girl, the playing field was leveled and Videl finally had an opportunity for a win. After all, in a few months time her boyfriend would once again be superhuman, and she would not stand a chance.

As both of them prepared to launch one final attack, their two straw haired friends burst into the room, calling out to the two fighters. Both Gohan and Videl were thrown off guard by the interruption, and in perfect sync with one another, they lost their balance and fell off the beam.

"Damn it!" Videl shouted, hitting her fist into the ground. Beside her, Gohan rubbed her sore leg, not at all happy with her collision with the floor.

"Sorry," Erasa apologized, giving her best friend a sideways hug. "We didn't think we'd scare you guys that much. We were just hoping to catch the end of the fight with better seats."

Gohan felt the blood drain from her face. "You were watching us?" she softly asked, still trying to catch her breath.

"Well, yeah!" Sharpener responded, offering a hand to help the new girl up. "That was awesome! I've never seen another girl who could hold her own against Videl!"

Erasa nodded, her arm still wrapped around Videl's shoulders. "Yeah!" she enthusiastically agreed. "It was so cool! Why didn't you tell us you were a fighter?"

"Um, I really wouldn't call myself a fighter," Gohan nervously responded, averting her eyes. "I just kind of do it for fun…"

"I don't buy it," Sharpener interrupted with a laugh. "I've worked my ass off to try to get as good as her, and she still wails on me. There is no way in hell someone who's just screwing around with it can be _that_ good!"

Seeing Gohan starting to panic, Videl freed herself from Erasa's grip and placed herself between her boyfriend and Sharpener. "Hey, leave the new girl alone," she defended, moving Gohan backward slightly with her body. "If she doesn't want to talk about her training, she doesn't have to."

The two blondes exchanged a glance. "What's up with you, Videl?" Erasa asked.

Videl glared at her friend and crossed her arms defensively. "Nothing's up with me," she quickly answered. "Why would you think something was?"

"Maybe because the last time we had a new kid here you badgered him about every little part of his life until he cracked and practically gave you his bank passwords," Sharpener pointed out. "You gave us updates on an hourly basis to make sure we knew everything about nerd boy. What's with the sudden change?"

As Videl looked away, Erasa's eyes went between the two other females before they widened. "Oh my god!" she gasped.

Gohan and Videl both stood up as straight as they could, suddenly on edge. _Oh crap, she figured it out!_ Gohan fearfully thought. _How did she manage to do that? Was I __**that**__ obvious? Oh no, how am I going to explain this? I can't tell them about the dragon balls, but there's no other explanation for being a girl! That's it, my life is over! I might as well crawl under a rock and die!_

"What 'what'?" Videl challenged, her voice full of much more confidence than she actually felt.

"Gohan's gone, and you miss him!" the blonde girl announced. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry! Of course you would be helping out Kit! She's so much like your missing sweetheart that of _course_ you'd want to protect her!" With a look of pity on her face, she rushed over and hugged Videl. "Sweetie, I'm sorry I've been teasing you."

A faint blush spread over Videl's cheeks. She stammered slightly, trying to come up with an explanation that was less embarrassing and made her seem less like a love-sick fool, but there was nothing she could think of. Meanwhile, Gohan attempted to make her way to the door as quietly as possible.

Unfortunately, her escape attempt did not go unnoticed. "And you!" Erasa went on, rushing over and giving the new girl a hug. "You are such a great person! Here you are, your first day in a brand new school and helping someone through such a hard time!"

"Uh, it was nothing, really," Gohan stammered, looking away. "Listen, I should probably get going…"

"I thought we were getting supposed to be getting sugared up," Sharpener griped.

"I thought you had boxing practice," Videl returned.

The tall blond suddenly stood up straight, a panicked look on his face. "Crap, I've only got half an hour!" he cried. "Why didn't you remind me sooner?"

Videl rolled her eyes. "Why don't you know what your own plans are?" she retorted. "Now go get ready for your practice and we'll see you tomorrow."

As the male jogged out of the room, Erasa giggled and looked at the other two. "I think when he offered to cut practice to help Gohan, he used mental white out and erased it completely." Adjusting her bag over her shoulder, she waved the girls over in her direction. "Now let's go have some fun. I'll drive!"

"I can't make it!" Gohan blurted out.

Erasa frowned at the new girl. "Why not?" she whined.

Gohan desperately tried to find an excuse, but her lying had not improved with her gender change. Thankfully, her girlfriend was slightly better at it.

"She promised to get home no more than an hour and a half after school ended," the indigo eyed girl claimed. "She's got to help unpack at her new place."

"Oh," the blonde responded with a frown. "That's too bad. Maybe later this week?"

"Uh…"

Gohan never made it further than that before Videl came to the rescue again. "Sure, that'll be great," she pressed. "But she's got to get going, and we shouldn't get her grounded on her first day, so let's go!"

Faster than Gohan could believe, Erasa was on her way home and the two brunettes alone. "Wow," Gohan said, watching Erasa's car disappear, "that was impressive."

"I usually am," the shorter girl teased. "Now let's get you home before your mother really does flip out."

"In a minute," Gohan responded with a frown. Slowly, she turned to her girlfriend and gave her a serious look. "You're hurt."

Videl snorted. "We were sparring. It happens. You're not exactly unmarked yourself."

But Gohan did not seem appeased. "I meant before that," she said. "You went out on a mission alone and you got hurt."

"No!" Videl scolded. "Don't do this to me, Gohan! I know what you're going to say, and you might as well save your breath. I was taking down criminals on my own, without some Saiyan bodyguard, for _years_ before you ever waltzed in to my life. And yeah, it got easier with you there, but I am perfectly capable of taking care of it on my own."

"That's not what those bruises told me," the taller girl returned with a frown. "Videl, I don't like you taking on armed criminals on your own!"

Within an instant, Videl had Gohan pinned on the ground. "And what exactly could you do to help?" she shot back. "You're not any stronger than I am anymore, and you're not experienced at _avoiding_ gunfire. You may not like it, but without me helping out, the criminals best the cops and good people get hurt."

Recovering from the shock of being floored, Gohan flipped them around and managed to get up. "Okay, okay, I get it!" she snapped. "You do good, people need you! Point made!"

Videl frowned. She had made her point, but the victory felt oddly hollow. "Gohan," she gently said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be so harsh about it. I know all of this is hard on you, but you can't expect me to stop being me just because you're not protecting me anymore." She offered a gentle hug, adding, "And who knows? Maybe you'll pick up on this quickly and we can go back to fighting crime together!"

The barest hint of a smile graced Gohan's gentle features. "You promise?"

"I promise," she shorter girl answered. "Now come on, neither one of us is going to be able to fight crime if your mother murders us for being late."

The two laughed as Gohan summoned Nimbus, and before they knew it, they were standing outside the Son home. "Mom? Dad?" Gohan called out, opening the front door. "We're home!" When no answer greeted her, she stepped in and turned on the living room light. "Goten? You home?"

Nervously, she went up the stairs and checked out the bedrooms. "They're not here," she called out.

From just outside, Videl shouted back, "The car is gone."

"Oh," Gohan responded with a frown. "I wonder where they could be…"

"Maybe they're out grocery shopping," the indigo eyed girl supplied. "After all, I doubt your mom would trust Goten at home without the supervision of someone who had practiced being tackled through a wall."

Shrugging, Gohan sat down on the couch. "I guess that makes sense." Glancing up, she coyly asked her girlfriend, "Would you mind waiting with me until they get back? Even with Dad and Goten along, grocery shopping shouldn't take _that_ long."

"Sure," Videl answered, taking a seat next to Gohan. "I'll stay with you the whole time. I promise, Gohan, I'll always be here for you."


	13. Chapter 13

Krillen placed the phone down on the hook, an oddly blank look on her face. "Huh," was all she said as she turned away.

"'Huh' what?" asked Oolong. "Who called?"

The little woman sat down on the couch, still seemingly numb. "That was Goten," she told the others in the living room. "That phone call was…weird…"

"All phone calls with Goten are weird," Marron pitched, taking a seat next to her daddy. "That's why they don't let him use the phone a lot. He kinda forgets what he called someone for, and then he just talks about whatever comes to his mind."

"Well, yeah," Krillen agreed, "but even for a Goten conversation, that was weird. He kept saying something about his aunt and the woods and something getting broken…I have no idea what it was about. I mean, I could hear Chi-Chi trying to coach him in the background, but then it sounded like some other woman screaming bloody murder over something and Chi-Chi left. Goten just rambled from there."

Eighteen leaned against the doorframe and crossed her arms. "A strange phone call from Goten, combined with Chi-Chi coaching and another woman screaming in the background, sounds like Goku got himself in trouble."

Krillen looked skeptical. "No, that can't be it," she said. "This is Goku we're talking about. How much trouble could he be in?"

"As a human and a woman?" countered the icy blonde. "That's an endless list of possibilities."

"Oh, I'd pay good money to see that!" crowed Roshi. "The all-powerful Goku finally got himself in a spot of trouble that he couldn't fight his way out of? We should write this down, it'll never happen again!"

Pushing off from the couch, Krillen reached for her jacket. "I'm going to drive over there," she announced. "I need to see if Goku's okay."

"Would you like me to come with?" her wife asked.

Krillen stalled for a moment, considering the offer as the jacket slid into place. "No," she finally answered. "I would rather have you here, just in case. I'll call if I need you." The cyborg gave a silent nod, watching stoically as her husband took the car and left the island. The barest hint of a smirk appeared for a brief moment as she thought of what the issue at the Son household might be.

It had to be a great story.

/

Bulma took a long, slow drink from her coffee mug. It was almost three in the morning, but there was no way for her to feel as though she could go to sleep. She had received an enigmatic phone call from Chi-Chi earlier, simply asking that she leave herself available. Two hours after that, Gohan had called and asked if she knew what the hell had happened to the rest of the family. No one was giving her any more information than that, and until she had been given enough detail to know that things were fine, she refused to go to sleep.

A soft noise sounded behind her, and the exhausted heiress got to her feet and pulled another mug from the cabinet. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Do I ever?" Vegeta returned, taking a drink from Bulma's mug as the blue haired woman filled the fresh cup.

An exhausted smile crossed Bulma's face. "Touché," she acknowledged. "Now give me my lucky mug back."

Taking one last drink from it, Vegeta silently complied. That woman was insane when it came to anything she designated as 'lucky', and the former Saiyan had learned well enough, through years of trial and error, that simply forfeiting a 'lucky' object was a far better scenario than telling the heiress that she was nuts. Bulma topped off her own beverage, and the two sat in silence in the kitchen for several minutes before Bulma reluctantly let out a sigh.

"I suppose you want to know what I'm doing up right now."

Vegeta did not say a word, silently taking another sip of her drink.

Bulma swirled her warm brew around, watching the liquid slosh from side to side. "I'm not entirely sure what's going on," she admitted, "but I think there's something wrong with either Goku or Goten."

Again, Vegeta did not see anything, though she did raise an eyebrow at the statement.

"I don't know," Bulma sighed. "I kind of want to go over and see what's going on, but I'd have to drive, and that'll take forever. Besides, even _I_ know that I'm too tired to drive safely right now, let alone driving for five hours."

Another sip was taken by the princess.

"What do you think it could be?" the heiress asked her husband. "Do you think one of them got hurt? Maybe Goku got sick…oh, lord, you don't think it's the hear virus again, do you? Goku barely managed to survive that with medication and a Saiyan immune system, there's no _way_ he could handle it as a human! Is there even any medicine left for that? I never thought to ask. Everything was so crazy after all of that, with the Androids and Cell and all of that craziness. And Goku was dead anyway, so there was no reason to ask!"

Without making a noise, Vegeta rose from her seat, carrying her coffee mug with her.

Bulma began to wring her hands together. "What if the virus came back with Goku when he came back to life?" she panicked. "What if he spread it to the boys? What if Goten's sick? Do you think that could be it? God, what if Goten had it, and it spread to _Trunks_? Do you think that's it? Do you think that's why they're not telling us anything? Oh, Vegeta, if Trunks gets sick, I don't know what I'll do!"

"Harpy!"

Bulma's head snapped up, anger blazing in her tired blue eyes. "What did you call me?" she demanded.

However, her husband had not been talking to her. As Bulma had gone off on a rant, the former Saiyan had gotten up and dialed the phone. "Explain this emergency so the woman and I can go to bed!"

"Vegeta!" Bulma gasped. "That was so rude!"

On the line, Chi-Chi's sneer was practically audible. "Has anyone ever told you what a bright ray of sunshine you are in our lives?" she sarcastically bit out. "Just put Bulma on the line."

The princess had already passed the phone on by the time that comment had been made and was working on her next cup of coffee. Grumbling at the kitchen table, Bulma shot her husband a veiled glare as she put the phone up to her ear. "I'm so sorry about that, Chich," she apologized. "Someone I know hasn't gotten her beauty rest and it's made her a cranky little bitch."

"And this is different from Vegeta's usual behavior how?" Chi-Chi asked. Before her friend could answer, the mother waved the whole thing off. "Never mind. As much as I hate to admit it, my mood isn't really all that much better than that of 'her highness' right now."

"We're all tired," Bulma consented. "Now, could you tell me what the hell is going on before I give myself a coronary?"

The tired woman on the other end sighed. "Goku and Goten went out for a walk earlier today and Goku hurt his, um, _her_, ankle. When Goten got _her_ home, I took her to the hospital."

Bulma cringed. "Yikes," she hissed slightly. "It's that bad?"

"Worse," Chi-Chi groaned. "Because of where the break was and how it was injured, they had to surgically reset it. And, in case you're wondering, my beloved Goku handles being put under about as well as needles."

"Oh man," responded the heiress. More awake than she had been before, Bulma got to her feet and began to pace her way around the dimly lit kitchen. "That sucks. You guys didn't have any senzu beans?"

"None," the other woman answered. "I'm going to see if there's any way for us to get our hands on one as soon as Goku's discharged, but the last I heard from my husband there weren't any that were even close to sprouting a couple weeks ago."

Bulma sighed. "We could get Goten and Trunks to take her up the tower and get Dende to heal her," she offered. "And if we don't trust them enough, we could get Eighteen to do it, or Piccolo, or Yamcha…"

"Bulma," the dark haired mother interrupted, "I've been thinking about it, and…I think I may just encourage Goku to let this one heal naturally."

That certainly caught the heiress off guard. "Um, is there a particular reason for this?" she asked. "Or have you suddenly become just a little more evil?"

Chi-Chi let out a long sigh. "Listen, there's no good way to say this," she admitted, "but here's the thing: Goku has no clue how to draw limits with his new body. I don't know how Vegeta's been about this, but Goku still walks around like there's nothing in the world that can hurt him. Yes, it's mean to want him to be in traction for a week, but Bulma…I can't keep baby-sitting my own husband. I love the guy, Bulma, but I can't watch Goten, cook the food, do the laundry, mend the clothes, tend to the gardens, keep Gohan from hyperventilating to the point of brain damage, _and_ keep Goku from getting himself killed." She leaned heavily against the hospital wall and sighed again. "If I can keep Goku laid up for just a week, I can help him understand that he's, well, _mortal_ now."

"He wasn't immortal, Chich," Bulma reminded.

"I know," Chi-Chi quickly agreed, "but you know as well as anybody that he's never been a cautious person. Really, with the exception of whatever immanent doom falls on us every few years, he doesn't consider anything dangerous. All I need is a little time to get that through Goku's head, that the world is dangerous when you're not an all-powerful Saiyan. After that, I can back off."

While she still did not feel that it was right, Bulma could admit to herself that Chi-Chi was in a rough situation. "Would it help if I offered to take the boys for a few days?" she offered.

"Are you out of your feeble little mind?" Vegeta shouted from the other side of the kitchen. "I'm not letting two more little brats run amok in my house!"

"Well then I guess it's a good thing that it's _my_ house, isn't it?" the heiress loudly shot back.

"No it's not!" Vegeta hollered back. "You wanted to get _married_, so _half_ of the house is _mine!_"

"You're impossible!"

"Of course I am!"

From her end of the line, Chi-Chi rolled her eyes. "Your relationship is so magical," she sarcastically told her friend.

Bulma could not help the smirk that came upon her face. "It is, isn't it?" She cradled the phone between her cheek and her shoulder, freeing her hands to pour herself yet another cup of coffee. "So, what did Gohan say when you told him about Goku's injury?"

Only silence greeted her, and Bulma had to call out to her friend several times before finally garnering a response. "Damn it!" Chi-Chi gasped. "I completely forgot to tell Gohan!"

Clearly able to hear both sides of the conversation, Vegeta rolled her eyes. "I see genius rolls in from both sides of the family," she sneered.

"Shut up!" Bulma snipped at her husband. Taking the phone in hand once more, Bulma said, "Chich, you sound like you're exhausted. Why don't you bunk down for the night, and I'll give Gohan a call."

"Thank you," the exhausted mother gratefully accepted. "I'm so sorry I forgot to call you guys. Between trying to explain the gender confusion in pronouns to the medical staff, keeping Goku restrained long enough to get her ready for surgery, keeping Goten under control, and finding enough food to keep Goten's stomach from digesting itself, I completely forgot about Gohan. Oh, I feel like such a terrible mother…"

"Chi-Chi, please," Bulma interrupted, rolling her eyes. "You forgot to call your almost grown son who happens to now be your almost grown daughter. It's not the end of the world. Hell, it's not even like the time that _someone I know _decided to leave our at the time six year old son in the park because he was being obnoxious!"

Vegeta snorted before taking another sip of her own brew. "Oh, what are you complaining about?" she grumbled. "The boy got home, he still had all four limbs in tact, and he was not traumatized for life. What's the problem?"

Bulma stuck her tongue out at her husband, but chose to keep her verbal retaliation to herself. "Anyway, you go get some rest, Chi-Chi," she told her friend. "I'll make sure Gohan is taken care of, and you've been making a lot of pronoun issues yourself lately. Get some sleep, call me in the morning."

"Thank you," Chi-Chi groggily responded. "I'll let you know if anything happens."

The women exchanged good-byes and hung up, each one hoping to be asleep within a matter of minutes. "Alright," the exhausted heiress said to herself, dialing the phone. "I just need to fill Gohan in, and then we can go to bed…"

"Hallelujah," Vegeta mumbled, taking another drink.

The phone rang several times before an unfamiliar female voice came on the line. "Hello?"

"Gohan?" Bulma asked.

"Close," the voice chuckled. "It's Krillen."

"Oh…" Her exhausted mind took a minute to fully comprehend the scenario. "What are you doing there?"

Krillen sighed. "Long story short, we got a strange phone call from Goten and I wanted to check it out."

Bulma nodded. "Makes sense. Listen, is Gohan there?"

"She is," the tiny woman explained, "but she and Videl are dead to the world asleep on the couch. I let myself in a couple minutes ago."

The heiress quirked an eyebrow. "Videl's there?"

"Yeah."

"Did you get pictures?"

Krillen groaned. "Do I have to?" she whined. "It's so creepy and weird and something you and Chi-Chi do."

The heiress scowled. "Do it or I'm shaving your head."

"I shaved my head for years," the former monk challenged back. "Bald is beautiful!"

"On a woman?"

Repressing the urge to shout, Krillen opted for a small huff. "You're evil, you know that?"

Again able to hear the conversation, Vegeta tossed in, "I sure as hell knew that."

"I hate you all," Bulma hissed. "Look, Krillen, forget the pictures. Here's what happened…"

It only took a few minutes for the heiress to explain the situation to her friend. "Geez, Goku's hurt that badly?" Krillen responded with a wince. "You know, I don't think I can ever remember him having a broken bone unless he was in a life and death fight. He never even broke anything while we were training."

"I know," Bulma agreed. "That's part of the reason Chi-Chi wants to keep Goku in traction for a while."

"Can't say as I blame her," Krillen relented. "Well, thanks for letting me know. I'll tell Gohan and Videl in the morning."

As that last phone conversation of the evening ended, Bulma shot her husband a wary glance. "What are you up to?"

Vegeta placed her mug in the dishwasher and brushed her hair behind her shoulders. "Whatever makes you think I am up to something?" she replied, her voice thick with malice.

"Well for one thing, I've met you," Bulma pointed out. "Look, I know it's not often that Goku's down for the count, but please don't make this situation any worse than it is. She's been through a lot lately, Vegeta, and the last thing she needs right now is you doing anything to screw with her mind."

The wicked look never even faltered as Vegeta began to leave the room. "Gee, and here I thought you knew me…"

"Vegeta, what are you going to do?" Bulma called out, chasing her husband. "Vegeta? Vegeta, what are you going to do?"


	14. Chapter 14

Trunks heard his alarm going off, but he refused to acknowledge it. If the damn thing wanted to blare at him, he refused to give it the satisfaction of so much as smashing it to bits, let alone taking the time to turn it off properly. No good could come from getting out of bed. Everyone was mad at him, no one was mad at Goten, and life just sucked. No, there was no force at all that could get him out of bed.

"Rise and shine, sweetie!" Bulma cheerily greeted as she barged in. "Hop out of bed and get dressed, we're having breakfast with Goten and his family."

The little prince heard the words clearly, despite having his head underneath a score of blankets, but there was no way he could have understood it. He was grounded indefinitely, and part of being grounded meant no Goten and no fun. Breakfast at the Son's had both of those. Clearly, he had to be wrong.

Bulma pulled back his bedroom curtain and allowed the bright sunlight in. "Come on, kiddo, you don't want to miss the special breakfast Chi-Chi made for all of us!"

Very hesitantly, the child peeked out from underneath his blankets. "I'm dying, aren't I?"

"Not that I'm aware of," his mother casually answered. "Now hop to it, young man! You know that food doesn't last long in the Son household!"

As his mother left the room, poor Trunks sat in his bed, blinking in bewilderment at what had just happened. There had to be a catch. There was no way they were taking him for anything other than some new round of torture. Most parents would be likely to use the set up for torture. His parents were guaranteed to do so.

Two minutes later, Bulma poked her head back in the room. "Trunks!" she scolded. "Why aren't you up yet? Come on, chop chop, get your butt up!"

"What's going on?" the little prince demanded, still holding his sheets.

Bulma let out a small huff. "I already told you, young man. We're having breakfast with the Son family. Now get up before all the food ends up being eaten before your father gets there. I don't think either of us want to be around _that_ particular scenario."

"But…"

"But nothing, young man! Up!"

Still convinced that it was some type of trap, Trunks figured that he was better off walking straight into whatever his parents had planned than protesting any longer. He might have been physically stronger than both of them, but Trunks knew perfectly well that regardless of that, his parents could easily make his life a living hell. Besides, there was an outside chance it was not a setup…

…right?

/

Chi-Chi barely managed to put the skillet down before having to rub at her eyes again. Even after getting off the phone with Bulma, she had found herself unable to get any real rest. Goku had woken up in the middle of the night and panicked when she did not recognize where she was, and trying to get a thrashing woman in traction to calm down was next to impossible. By the time she had gotten her husband calm, it was almost five in the morning. Resigning herself to an ultimately sleepless night, Chi-Chi had taken Goten home. She was still not entirely certain how she had managed to invite the others over for breakfast in her clearly exhausted state. But the invitation was out, and it would have been rude to turn them away.

Her vision blurred slightly with fatigue, and once again she tried to rub the sleep out of them. "Screw it," she muttered to herself. "Next time, I'm just going to be rude."

She heard twin yawns behind her, and even in her sleep deprived state she knew it meant the girls on the couch were finally awake. It was still early, and she had decided to let Gohan and Videl sleep in. It was a Saturday morning, after all, and they had been through a lot lately. One morning of sleeping in was not going to harm them. Particularly if it kept them out of the frazzled mother's hair.

Groggily, Gohan opened her eyes. "Where am I?" she muttered.

Beside her, Videl groaned and buried her face against the couch pillow. "Five more minutes," she grumbled.

Gohan's eyes shot open as the scene began to come into focus in her mind. She had spent the night on the couch? With Videl? _Alone_? Why, oh why, could that situation have never presented itself while she had been a boy? It was not fair!

Suddenly, the aroma of a delicious breakfast wafted into her nostrils, and Gohan got up from the couch. "What the…"

"Morning!" Krillen greeted as she hopped down the stairs and toweled off her hair. "I was wondering when you were going to wake up."

"Krillen?" the still confused teenager asked. "What are you doing here?"

The tiny woman tossed the towel on to her shoulder and gave her head a little shake. "Well, after Goten called me from the hospital…"

"The _what?_"

The former monk shook her head, an amused smile on her face. "Wow, you really didn't know about anything yesterday, did you?" Krillen gave her hair one last pat down as she began to explain the situation. "Apparently your dad and Goten went for a walk yesterday while you were at school and Goku broke his ankle pretty bad. He, er, _she_, had to get it surgically mended, and she'll be in traction for a while. Your mom and Goten spent the bulk of the night in the hospital helping to get Goku settled, and I came over to explain this to you. But your mom got home about an hour and a half ago and invited my family and Bulma's over for breakfast, so you two are going to want to clean up pretty soon." Dropping her voice to a low whisper, Krillen added, "I'd keep an eye on your mom if I was you. I don't think she got any sleep last night and I think she's a little out of it."

"Noted," Gohan numbly responded, still trying to figure out just what exactly was going on. "I guess I'll get Videl up…" She leaned over her girlfriend and called her name, offering her a gentle shake. She was not at all prepared for having her inner elbow grabbed, let alone the fist that registered with her jaw.

"OW!" the poor girl mumbled, cradling the sore jaw. "Videl! What the hell?"

Still waking up slightly, the fighter squinted and backed up against the couch. "What?"

Wincing slightly, Krillen went over to Gohan and inspected the wound. "Yikes, she really got you, didn't she?"

"Gohan?" Videl asked. "Did I actually hit you?"

"You didn't just hit her," Krillen chuckled, "you clobbered her! Damn, check this out!"

Videl bounced off of the couch in a heartbeat. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry!" she cried. "I'm so, so sorry! You startled me and…and I guess I panicked a little. I didn't mean to hurt you!"

"It's okay," Gohan mumbled, her jaw still extremely sore. "I shouldn't have startled you."

"You couldn't have known that I react that way," Videl pointed out. "I mean, who really wakes up swinging for the fences if they get caught off guard?"

"Oh, I can answer that one!"

All three females in the living room turned quickly for the front door. None of them had heard the Briefs family arrive, and so none of them had been aware of the fact that their entire scene had just been played out in front of an audience until Bulma had spoken.

The heiress had a smirk on her face and nodded in her husband's direction. "You should see her royal highness if she wakes up before she's ready," she teased.

Behind her, Vegeta growled. "You want a demonstration?"

"No thanks, sweetie," Bulma dismissed immediately. "Now, is there anything we can do to help out around here?"

"Check with Mom," Gohan muttered, still cradling her jaw. "And could someone get me some ice for this?"

Trunks did not even wait for his mother to direct him to help out. Any favors he could do without direct order could be used to lighten his sentence, and he planned to use that to the utmost of his abilities. Maybe, if he was really lucky, he could get away with only being grounded until the wish was reversed. "Here you go," the child quickly offered, handing the teenager ice wrapped in a dish towel. "You want anything else? Painkillers? Tea? Something to put your feet up on?"

"Um, thanks, I'm good," Gohan warily responded, accepting the ice. "Trunks, why don't you go see if you can find Goten?"

Trunks looked back at his parents. "I don't think I'm allowed to…"

"Oh, go for it," Bulma interrupted. "Just stay on the property, okay?"

That fear Trunks had felt that morning returned with a vengeance. His parents were clearly playing with his head, and Trunks had no idea just what the endgame was. It was a dangerous situation for the poor child to be in. They were plotting against him, they had to be, and any act of kindness from them had to be a setup. "I don't have to," he softly responded.

"Don't worry about it," his mother assured him. "Go play and have fun."

Again, Trunks hesitated. Until he knew what game his mother was playing with him, he did not feel comfortable having fun. "I think I'll just stay down here."

"Suit yourself," Bulma said. "I'll be in the kitchen keeping Chi-Chi from falling asleep over that gas stove."

Meanwhile, Videl continued to study Gohan's jaw. "I don't think I broke anything," she seriously said, "but you're probably not going to want to move it around too much for an hour or so." With a sympathetic look on her face, she gave Gohan a kiss on her forehead. "Sorry, I think I just set back your breakfast."

"Wonderful," Gohan muttered.

"No talking!" Bulma called from the kitchen. "The more you talk, the longer it'll be before you can…okay, Chi-Chi, you need to sit down now…"

Cringing with guilt, Videl turned to the two remaining guests in the living room. "Um, is there anything I can get for either of you?" Trunks was still afraid of being in a trap and stayed silent, and Vegeta offered the petite fighter nothing more than an angry glare. "Alright then, if you change your minds just let me know. Gohan, can I see you upstairs for a minute?"

As the teenagers disappeared to the second floor, Trunks sat quietly and folded his hands in his lap. There was mischief afoot, and he was not a part of it. The smartest thing he could do at the moment was stay as still as possible and try to be completely aware of his surroundings. If he kept a careful eye on his parents, there was no way they could sneak up on him…

Wait, where did his father go?

/

Goku groaned as she woke up. "Ow," she whined. "What's going on?"

"You're a weak and feeble waste of space who managed to get hurt putting one foot in front of the other in a theoretically linear fashion."

The poor injured woman, still having issues waking up. The anesthesia from the day before had not completely worked its way out of her system yet. "Vegeta?"

Leaning against the wall, the princess smirked. "Look at you," she taunted. "The all-powerful Kakarot, too pathetic to make it even a week without nearly getting killed. Was there soft terrain, or were you bested by a squirrel?"

Goku frowned and tried to sit up, but the position of her leg made that action very difficult. "Why are you here?"

Vegeta snorted. "Did you really believe that I would pass up an opportunity to see you like this?"

"Where's my family?" the taller woman asked.

"Enjoying a meal without you," the princess bit out. "I must know, Kakarot, just how you managed to do this to yourself. As amusing a thought as it is hearing that you did this simply by walking, even _you_ cannot be so pitiful that you severely injured yourself doing _that_."

Mortification swam across Goku's face as she looked away in shame. "Is there an actual reason you're here, Vegeta?"

For a brief moment Vegeta appeared angry by the dismissive response, but slowly that look morphed into one of consideration, and finally to one of amusement. "You really did it, didn't you?" she chuckled. "You really destroyed part of your leg by changing your location!"

"It's not that bad!" Goku defended.

"Not that bad?" Vegeta laughed. "Look at you, you imbecile! You are trapped in a hospital bed with your leg jury rigged in this civilizations obscure variation on traction, stuck here for at least a week because of your own stupidity and naiveté!"

"Shut up!"

Leaning forward, Vegeta gave the other former Saiyan a malicious smirk. "Make me."

Angry, frustrated, and still bothered by the anesthesia, Goku took a swing at the shorter woman. However, still on her feet and easily mobile, Vegeta had no problem at all jumping out of the way with a mocking laugh. Goku leaned forward, taking another attempt to try to get Vegeta, but there was no hope of success. "Damn it, Vegeta!" she cried. "Why are you doing this?"

With a chuckle and taking a taunting step forward, Vegeta leaned in and said, "Because it is frustrating for you and fun for me."

Goku swung again, but once again Vegeta simply jumped out of the way. "How come you're such a jerk?" she cried.

"Did you injure your head again on this outing?" the princess mocked. "Honestly, Kakarot, have you forgotten everything you have ever known about me?"

Irritated, Goku crossed her arms and slumped back against her hospital pillows. "Sometimes I don't know why you're my friend."

"I often wonder why you think we are friends as well," Vegeta shot back. "I have never done anything that would even vaguely imply that I think of you in that moronic manner."

"But you spar with me all the time!" the younger woman whined.

Rolling her eyes, Vegeta leaned against the wall. "Yes, an excuse to drive my fist into your face is clearly a cry for friendship. Clearly I am friends with every person I have ever met in my life."

With a huff, Goku looked away. "Why is it taking the others so long to get here?" she grumpily asked.

"If you mean to ask if your foolish friends came to visit you this morning," Vegeta replied, "then you are sorely mistaken. As I mentioned earlier, they are at your house, enjoying a delicious smelling breakfast while you stay on lock down in this bed and resigned to eating hospital food."

"Then why did _you_ come?"

That wicked look came back again. "Because, as stated before, I knew it would be frustrating for you, and therefore great fun for me."

"They're going to come later today," Goku snapped. "Then you'll be sorry!"

"Perhaps," Vegeta relented, "but it will not be for quite some time and I plan to enjoy myself quite thoroughly until then."

Goku frowned. "They'll figure out where you went when they realize your gone. They've probably done it already!"

"Most likely, yes," the princess again consented, reaching in to her pocket. "However, I took the woman's car to get here and, for good measure, brought yours along, as well. They are lacking transportation."

"Goten and Trunks can still fly!" Goku pointed out.

"Everyone knows that your brat is not trusted with passengers yet, and mine is too busy trying to figure out what his mother and I are planning to do to him. The boy will spend an eternity trying to weasel his way out of coming here. He is convinced that I have some dark vengeance awaiting him."

Goku raised an eyebrow at the other woman. "Don't you?"

Vegeta smirked. "Of course I do. Now, back to torturing you…"


	15. Chapter 15

Goku squawked slightly as she lost her balance again. Just barely, Chi-Chi and Gohan managed to catch the tall woman before she could crash face first into the floor. "Aw, man!" she called out. "How the heck are you supposed to use these things?"

After guiding the wounded woman to the couch, Gohan took the crutches and maneuvered slowly around the living room. "Like this," she stammered out. She was not much more stable than her father was, but she had two good feet to land on if necessary, and she was the only one tall enough to use the crutches that had been purchased for Goku.

Frowning, Goku slumped back against the couch and pouted. "This isn't fair!" she whined. "I've broken dozens of bones before, and I've never needed these damn things. Why do I need them now?"

"Dad, what did you do the last time you broke your leg?" Gohan asked.

Goku shrugged. "I finished sparring, came home, and took a few days off of training and just did housework. Why?"

Videl, who had come by to keep an eye on Goten as the other Sons helped Goku get used to her new apparatus, stared at the former man in shock. "You _finished_ a _fight_ with a _broken leg_?" she gawked.

"Well, yeah!"

Shaking her head, she turned her focus back to the studying Goten. "Unbelievable. I swear, I'll never get used to these Saiyans."

"It can take a while," Chi-Chi informed the younger woman as she helped Goku back up, "but sooner or later, your brain actually will adapt to all this insanity."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Videl chuckled.

It took several more attempts for Goku to get the hang of the crutches. She was still not graceful on them, and she certainly could not maneuver quickly, but she could move around decently well on her own. "This sucks," she griped, continuing to practice all around the living room. "I have broken every bone in my body before. Once was all at the same time! And I have _never_ had this much trouble just getting around."

Gohan raised an eyebrow at her father. "Um, after Vegeta first came to Earth, you couldn't even sit up on your own."

"Yeah, for like a week," Goku replied. "I was stuck in that stupid hospital for almost a month, they stuck me in a wheelchair for another two weeks, and now I have to use _these_ stupid things."

Goten, who had been working on his arithmetic at the kitchen table, put his pencil down. He had been listening the entire time to what had been going on with the rest of his family, and he felt absolutely awful about all of it. He was the one who had talked Trunks into getting the dragon balls in the first place. He was the one who had knocked the phone from Krillen's hand, allowing the wish to be made. He was the one who had insisted on going for a walk with his father. He was the one who had frozen when his dad had fallen, causing his father to fall far enough and hard enough to get really hurt. And up until that point, he had not been in all that much trouble for it. But as he listened to his daddy struggling just to move from one point of the living room to the other, he was miserable with guilt.

"Goten?" Videl softly asked. "What's the matter?"

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," he meekly told her.

Videl frowned. "Like what?"

"Like with people mad and sad and hurt," the child explained. "I just wanted me and Trunks to get to have a big adventure like everyone else got to when they were little."

The young woman offered the boy a gentle pat on the back as a token of reassurance, but she was at a loss for exactly how to respond to that distress. She was still comparatively new to the group, and was still learning the culture and the stories that the others were well versed in. Perhaps Goten needed to spend some more quality time who had been there from the beginning.

/

Trunks walked in circle after circle after circle in his room, frantically pacing as he tried to decipher was he was certain was a hidden code by his mother. She had recently informed him to pack an overnight bag, because he, Goten, and Marron were going to be having a slumber party over on Turtle Island. Now he knew for certain that his father was far from forgiving him, and as long as that scenario existed, everything had to be treated as a set up.

But where was the attack going to come from? How would the vengeance be enacted? Since no one else in the family possessed the ability to fly anymore, Trunks was either going to have to be driven by one of his parents or allowed to fly on his own. Maybe they had disabled the interior door handles of the car and were going to torture him in there. That seemed likely. Or maybe the attack would not be in transit. Maybe the whole reason behind sending them to the island was because Eighteen was still more powerful than they were, and they were going to let _her_ torture him. There were too many options and not enough time to counter them all.

His mother called for him, telling him that he had fifteen minutes to finish getting ready. The little prince cringed at the information. No, fifteen minutes was not nearly enough time.

Downstairs, Bulma could not help the wicked grin on her face. "You think we're taking this too far?"

"Hardly," Vegeta snorted. "He gets tortured until I no longer require chest support when I'm working out."

"Fair enough," the heiress chuckled. She was quietly enjoying the temporary peace between herself and her husband. There had been a lot of tension between the two of them since the entire debacle began, and some points had been downright ugly. Many things had changed in their relationship, and not necessarily for the better. One change they had both anticipated problems with had been that of their legendary sex life. It had been years since they had gone through a dry spell so long, and that alone was bound to lead to some additional stress.

However, that was hardly the only issue they were facing. They both had a tendency to shoot off their mouths and send smart assed comments toward one another, something that had previously been an obscure form of flirting for the two of them. But the comments were no longer being used as foreplay. Bulma had a tendency to give Vegeta grief about adapting to the new form. She had always done it with a laugh in her voice, and rarely intended her words to mean anything more than a light joke. Those words struck a chord in the former Saiyan, though, and to Vegeta it felt like salt being rubbed in a still open wound. And in response to that feeling, she would retaliate with bitterness and spite.

It was not always so miserable between them, but those moments of anger had been flaring up more and more often over the passing weeks. Times when they were at peace with one another, where Vegeta would have a very small sense of humor on the topic and Bulma kept any thoughts she had on it to herself, were savored. "That shipment I needed to continue work on the ship should be coming in tomorrow," she mentioned.

"Hn."

Bulma sighed contently. That little grunt meant that the princess was willing to stay and listen. "I'll probably be going back to my lab for an extensive period of time after that," she went on. "I know how eager we all are to get to Namek, and I'm doing my best to get us there as soon as possible."

"Hn."

That one meant that Vegeta approved of the actions. It was only after years together that Bulma could translate the guttural noises into the full sentences the average spouse would have used. It was an extremely useful skill. "We should probably talk with the others fairly soon about who should stay and who should go," she pointed out. "I mean, I'm making it large enough to get all of us onboard, and if it's decided that the entire gang is going, so be it. But I don't know how great an idea it's going to be to cram the four couples, plus all of their children, into a confined space for that long. It's going to take almost six days to get there, and that's assuming that nothing goes wrong. I'm not entirely certain we would make it all the way to Namek without murdering each other."

"Hn."

Ah, good point, honey. You really thought this out, didn't you? "Do you have a preference?" she asked.

"Hn."

Not yet. The information is new and I wish to have time to process it from every possible angle before committing to anything at this point in time. "I understand," she replied with a grin. "I'd want to know the guest list before agreeing, too. But just so you know, regardless of who else is going to be on board, I will have to go."

"Hn."

I will take that under advisement and factor it in to my calculations. "Okie dokie," Bulma said. "Hey, I was thinking that since you and I were going to be on our own tonight, maybe we could try something out. Something I've been kind of curious about."

"Hn?"

Please, dear lord, let it be about sex. Please, please, please… "Um, I wouldn't get my hopes too high in that department," Bulma giggled. "But it is something I think you'll find fun."

"Hn."

I'm not getting laid, I'm probably not interested. And if you try to curl my hair one more time, I will remove one of your eyeballs with a credit card. "Hey, I still think you'll find this fun." She said nothing more, once again settling peacefully into their silence. It was nice to feel like they were a couple instead of roommates, even if the moment was fleeting.

/

"Honey?" Krillen asked. "Do you know when, exactly, I lost my mind?"

The blonde shook her head as she entered the living room. "It was gone well before I ever met you," she coolly mentioned. "Is there something specific that is bringing about this recent awareness of it?"

The tiny woman shook her head. "Just the fact that I agreed to watch all three little hell raisers here for an entire night," she sighed. "Seriously, what the hell was I thinking?"

Eighteen shrugged again, offering no words in response. She had been wondering the same thing, and quite frankly, had not been particularly happy with the idea of having Goten and Trunks over for the evening. However, she was not all that surprised by it. Not only was Krillen a lifelong sucker for helping out his friends, but she could only imagine how much pleading must have come from the Son and Briefs households. Marron was a comparatively quiet child, and definitely lacked the power and speed possessed by the boys. She was fine to manage without superhuman gifts. And yet, of the three young children in the group, she was the only one that still had a parent that far exceeded human limits.

Trunks and Goten, on the other hand, were well known for their mischievous natures and the regimented control needed for both of them. Vegeta had always kept Trunks in line, and between Goku and Gohan, it was rare that Goten actually got away with anything too drastic. In fact, the biggest trouble those boys got in to was when someone other than those three happened to be in charge of them. It had been in Krillen's care, actually, that the latest catastrophe had come to pass.

Without the power of a Saiyan to back them up, Eighteen guessed that keeping those two controlled had been nothing shy of a nightmare.

"If you require assistance keeping them from destroying our property," she offered, "just let me know."

It turned out that the offer was unnecessary. Trunks and Goten had both been permitted to fly over on their own, a rare privilege for them both. The two boys were normally full of energy and thrilled to have someone their own age to play with. But that day, they were both unusually subdued. Goten seemed downright depressed, and Trunks…well, Trunks had definitely become significantly more paranoid over the past few weeks. He was checking absolutely everything for any sign of tampering, constantly looking over his shoulder, and refusing to play at all.

After a few hours passed, Marron stormed out of her room and angrily flopped on the couch. "Daddy, you need to fix them!" she pouted.

"What?" Krillen asked.

"You need to fix them!" the little girl insisted, her voice getting louder. "They're totally broken!"

It took no time at all for the blonde girl to give a very thorough, and slightly exaggerated, account of her 'broken boys'. "And that's why you need to fix them!" she finished. "So what are you going to do about it, Daddy?"

Krillen gulped. Goten and Trunks, both in sour moods and one of them suddenly scared of his own shadow? That did not sound like a situation that she wanted to walk in on. However, the options for offering comfort in that house were limited, and when all other parties were considered, Krillen could reluctantly admit that she really was the best choice for the role.

Slowly, she ascended the staircase, daughter in tow, to meet the boys. Sure enough, Goten was sitting on the floor, glumly looking at his feet, and Trunks was standing in the corner of the room, looking ready to jump out of his own skin as the door opened.

"Hey, guys!" Krillen greeted. "How's it going?"

Both boys offered responses that may or may not have involved actual words, and the former monk had to repress the urge to roll her eyes. "So how about some food?" she offered, clapping her hands together. "I went to the store just before you guys got here, so we've got plenty of good stuff! Come on, what are you in the mood for?"

She was met by mumbled versions of the word, "Nothing." Frustrated, Krillen leaned against his daughter's dresser and huffed. "Well, if you guys don't want food, how about a game?" When again he was met with indifference, she tried again with her secret weapon. "How about embarrassing stories about your parents from when they were teenagers?"

Goten and Trunks both snapped their heads in Krillen's direction. "Really?" Trunks hesitantly asked. Again, it sounded like a trap, but still...

"Really," Krillen assured. "But there's one condition. I can only tell you these stories if you guys start to cheer up. Deal?"

"Are they good ones?" Goten piped in.

"Yeah," Trunks added. "Like, ones we can use against them the next time we do something stupid?"

Krillen shrugged. "Well, I can't promise they'll help you if you do something _this_ stupid again," she admitted, "but I don't think these are stories that any parent can keep from their kids forever. Besides, I don't feel that bad telling stories on them. I know they'll turn around and tell you about all the stupid things I did when _I_ was younger. And you two look like you could use a good laugh."

Moving slowly, and still not sure that the offer was legitimate, the two boys took a seat on the bed next to each other. Marron hopped on, wedging her way between the boys. She knew her daddy well enough to know that there would probably be stories about her own parents thrown in there for good measure.

Pulling up a folding chair, Krillen took a seat and smiled. "Now, our first story begins…"


	16. Chapter 16

Bulma lay on her back and let out a long, slow breath. It was the middle of the night, but she was still hard at work on her space craft. It was taking far longer than she had initially planned, mostly due to the lack of help she had. In previous attempts to do something on such a large scale, she usually had either a full crew working with her, or a superhuman husband who could at least assist with hauling heavy equipment around. But her husband was, literally, no longer the man he used to be, and she was working with only limited support. She did not want her latest creation of such a nature to be leaked to the general public.

A spaceship that could go through the galaxy and reach other inhabited worlds was an amazing idea for humanity, but it was one she knew that her race was not ready for. She had traveled to the stars herself, and she knew from her own experience that letting the human race freely travel out there would almost certainly guarantee their eradication from the universe. In small numbers, she knew her people were fine. But as a whole, they were not gifted at respecting boundaries. They were, as much as the scientist hated admitting it, far behind many of the other worlds out there. They lacked the physical power to defend themselves barehanded, and they lacked the scientific knowledge to have equipment to compensate for that.

With only her most trusted, quiet employees working by her side, though, progress was stunted. She had hoped that she would get the necessary ship ready within a three month span, but it was looking more and more like that time frame would be doubled. It had crossed her mind that Trunks still had the strength to help move things around, but his attention span was that of a typical child. Ninety percent of focus was only good until that last ten percent showed up, and the amount of damage that boy could do with even a mild lapse in judgment could set them all back to square one. In her mind, it was not worth the risk.

Slowly, Bulma rolled up with a groan. She had been alone in that room for three hours, and her isolation was starting to get to her. But she would not take a break. She still felt partially responsible for the entire mess. It was not so much that she had suggested that she and the girls had a fun day as the Saiyans sparred and stuck Krillen with the kids. No, her guilt fell in what she had told Trunks only a week before that fateful day. It had seemed like a great idea at the time. In fact, it seemed downright vital.

Months before that day, there had been that battle against Buu. It was, as far as she was concerned, it was the worst one they had ever faced. Not because of raw power, though. It was the influence on the wizard had held over her husband that had made that one of the worst days of her life. Other enemies had been frightening, but the worst they could do was kill her. If she died, she died. It happened to her family and friends all the time, how bad could it be? But what had happened to Vegeta…

Bulma shook her head, trying to get those thoughts out. What had happened had happened, and she and her family had dealt with it. In the end, everything had worked out. But during that point in time, they had needed to gather the dragon balls, and the fastest one available to get it had been her son. They had ended up losing precious time because while Trunks had held a general idea of where the radar would be, he had needed his grandfather to find it for him in the end.

So, in case of an emergency, Bulma had sat her son down and told the boy that, if it really was a life and death situation, and the dragon balls were needed, it may be up to him to collect them. She had shown him exactly where it was kept and how to use it, making sure to explain very, very clearly that it was only to be used in cases of emergency.

Unfortunately, she had left out of her lecture that he was to keep that information to himself. And there was definitely at least a part of her that felt as though the mess was on her shoulders. She had told him where the radar was. She had taught him to use it. And what had he done? He had done what any child would have done. He had taken that information and immediately gone out and used it.

Boy, did she feel stupid about that.

As far as she knew, Trunks had never admitted to his father that she had been the supplier of that information. And she, in a sense of self preservation, had also chosen to keep that information to herself. It had seemed like the obvious thing to do. But over time, that gnawing bit of information was relentlessly attacking her conscience.

Grabbing her wrench again, she turned her focus back to the panel she had been trying to remove. "Damn it," she growled. "This was never an issue when I was only focused on me!"

/

Chi-Chi rolled her eyes. "It's over, Goku. You can open your eyes now."

"Are you sure?" her husband asked.

With a shake of her head, the dark haired woman let out a sigh. "For crying out loud, Goku, I can tell perfectly well when something has been bandaged all the way. Goodness knows I got good at it tending to you and our sons over the years. Now I promise you, your stitches aren't showing at all. I cleaned out the wound and wrapped it up again, just like the doctor told me to. I'm going to give it a chance to settle for a minute or so before I put the boot back on it."

"And you're not trying to trick me?" Goku clarified.

"If you want, I can take the bandage off and let you take care of it all on your own," the wife threatened.

Goku squawked and immediately dropped her hands from her eyes. "I believe you! I believe you!" she cried.

From the kitchen, Gohan shook her head. "That was downright evil, Mom."

"Have to have fun somehow," Chi-Chi chuckled, moving to wash her hands. Goku was making fairly slow progress recovering from her broken ankle, but that was a surprise to no one. Not only was the former Saiyan lacking the incredible rate of healing that she had once had, she was also combating her own curiosity. Each new day seemed to bring up the idea that maybe, just maybe, it had gotten strong enough to walk on overnight, usually followed by a small shriek, a loud thud, and essentially being on house arrest to assure that another attempt would not be made that day.

Unfortunately, it was putting strain on the other members of the household. Goten had certainly perked up since he had spent the day at Krillen's, but he was still a little boy, and as such needed constant adult supervision. He worked hard to be on his best behavior, but the natural tendencies of a child mixed with superhuman gifts led to frequent problems. When he had been too upset to do much of anything, the rest of the family could focus on Goku's problems. But that was no longer the case, and there was no longer anyone in the home with the physical strength to intervene when the boy got too excited.

Gohan had been having a glorious time trying to keep up with her school work. Not only was she facing human reflexes, leading to longer amounts of time on each assignment, but she was also being forced to do everything twice. She had to maintain grades as both Gohan, via correspondence, and her new feminine persona. It left almost no time for anything in life outside of her studies, and yet she felt compelled to help with both her wounded father and destructive brother.

Chi-Chi had essentially given up on the idea of sleeping. Keeping Goku restrained and supervised, keeping Goten as under control as she could, and ensuring that Gohan was not too focused to forget eating and simply starve to death took up most of her time in the day. Things like cleaning, cooking, and laundry could no longer get regularly done during the day. Meals were made for two days at a time, usually somewhere past ten at night. Laundry, when she had the energy to do it, usually happened around midnight. Cleaning had been abandoned almost completely, and it showed. For a controlling, type-A personality like Chi-Chi, it was maddening.

The sound of cracking dishes reached the mother's ears. "Mommy!" Goten called out. "I broke another plate! I'm sorry!"

She opened her mouth to call out an answer, but was interrupted by a whimper from her husband. "Chi-Chi?" Goku called out. "Can you hand me my crutches?"

"In a minute," she quickly answered. "I still have to help you with the boot, and Goten…"

A loud crash. "Goten!" Gohan wailed. "Stop playing with my project! I'm running out of time, and I need to make another one already, and…"

Thud. "Ack! Chi-Chi, help! I fell off the couch! I'm stuck here!"

Crack. "Oops! I'm sorry, Mommy, that was another plate!"

Falling paper. "Goten, stop doing the dishes as a Super Saiyan! You're blowing my notes everywhere!"

"Chi-Chi, I'm stuck!"

"Mommy, I need help!"

"Goten, stop!"

The phone rang, and never in her life had Chi-Chi been so desperate for such a distraction. "Hello?" she loudly called out, her stress level evident.

There was a mild pause on the other line before the caller spoke. "Chich?" Bulma asked. "Are you okay?"

"Chich?" Goku called out again, unable to see that her wife was on the phone. "I really can't get up! My arms are pinned by the couch and the coffee table!"

Gohan jogged out from the kitchen, having heard her father. "Here," she grunted, helping the taller woman back onto the couch. "Now, please just wait for Mom to help you." Another crashing sound, and Gohan was sprinting back to the kitchen, shouting, "Goten, no!"

"I'm sorry," Goku sincerely apologized to both her wife and her daughter. "I didn't mean to upset you…"

"Chi-Chi?" Bulma called out on the phone. "You there?"

"Can I call you back in a minute?" the brunette asked, watching the chaos around her.

"Um, sure."

Two minutes later, Goten was zoning out watching cartoons, Gohan was sorting her notes, and Goku had the boot back on and was also zoning out with the cartoons. With a frazzled sigh, Chi-Chi dragged her feet upstairs and picked up the phone in her room. "Bulma?"

"Yeah?" the other mother answered, adjusting her own phone. "You okay there? It sounded like you were in the middle of a stampede back there."

"You have no idea," Chi-Chi groaned. "I didn't think having Goku and Gohan like this was going to make things harder, but it's just gotten insane. And it's not just them not being Saiyan anymore that's causing all of this. Them being girls has changed them more than I would have given it credit for."

Bulma nodded, pulling her legs up and sitting cross legged on an empty lab table. "I know!" she agreed. "And it's not, like, period drama or mood swings that are driving me nuts. I don't know about the girls you've got at your place, but over here I'm living with someone who is suddenly more…"

"Perceptive to their surroundings?" Chi-Chi interrupted.

"Yeah."

The brunette sighed. "Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Goku used to be so freaking oblivious to _everything_ around him that it bugged the living daylights out of me. And even Gohan didn't seem to really pick up on what other people were thinking. They used to wait until I was screaming bloody murder before they understood that I was too stressed out. Now they just, well, _know_."

"It's weird, isn't it?" Bulma responded. "And I'm like you, I'm used to having to fight and scream to get my point across. Vegeta used to be so out of touch with the emotional state of anyone around him. He could tell you every little detail about what they wore, how they moved, what they said. But if you asked that man how someone else felt, he honestly could not tell you unless they were in some overdramatic state of rage or hysteria. In a weird way, I got used to it. I could have a bit of an off day, but I knew I'd be treated exactly the same by my husband because he wouldn't pick up on the difference in my mood. Now, well…"

"It changes how they act," Chi-Chi agreed with a sigh. "I used to have to scream out a bulleted list of things that were bothering me to get the point across and for Goku to apologize, but now I'm hearing this meek little apology coming every time I do _anything_. And Gohan always seemed to be aware that I was working hard for our family, but now she seems to constantly be on the edge of a nervous breakdown, insisting that she's not doing enough to help me. I swear, it was almost better when they just missed the signals entirely."

Bulma flopped backwards and stretched out along the table. "I think part of it is just that they're new to being able to pick up on it," she tried to rationalize. "They don't seem to know how to handle it. I don't know about you two, but Vegeta tends to go for the keeping the mouth shut approach. I'll walk in feeling a little down, he opens his mouth, closes it, and quietly looks away. It's unsettling."

Chi-Chi groaned slightly as she stretched her own legs. "Still calling Vegeta a he?"

"Depends on the day," Bulma honestly answered. "I know it's been a while since the switch happened, but I haven't settled on a pronoun yet. Sometimes I go he, sometimes she. I try not to put too much thought into it." She raised her leg and rolled her ankle around. "So how are things going with Goten?"

There was a very definite pause before the answer came. "Emotionally, he's doing a lot better."

"So is Trunks," Bulma replied with a nod. "I don't know what Krillen did with them, but he's definitely less paranoid than he used to be." Adjusting again, she asked, "So, other than emotionally, you're having some trouble with him?"

"Not me so much as the house," Chi-Chi grumbled. "Even when Goku first got back from Namek and was still learning to deal with all that new power, we did not take this much structural damage. I don't think I ever really realized just how much Goku, and especially Gohan, did to keep that power in check. I guess I wasn't really looking for it since I didn't really have that problem with Gohan."

On her end, Bulma cringed. "Um, as it was my dumbass son that taught yours how to make a wish, please accept my offer to pay for repairs to your house."

Chi-Chi clenched and unclenched her toes, starting to relax a little. "Under normal circumstances," she answered, "I would insist that we could take care of it on our own. But at this rate, and without Goku able to help rebuild right now, please anticipate me saying 'yes' to that offer. When we get things back to as normal as we ever get them, we will definitely need building supplies."

"Consider it done," Bulma responded. "Anyway, I originally called to say it's going to be at least a couple more months before we'll have a chance to head out to New Namek. On the plus side, though, it should only take us about twelve days to get there after takeoff."

"I thought it only took my Goku six days to get there last time," Chi-Chi asked with a small frown.

But Bulma shook her head. "The new one is further out, and since there isn't a life or death situation, I don't want to push the engines as hard this time as we did back then."

Chi-Chi sighed. "Makes sense." A cringe shot through her as she heard something else break, followed by Goten shouting an apology up the staircase. "Cartoons are over. Time to go hold down the fort."

"Good luck," Bulma told her.

After hanging up, the heiress looked around at the interior of the ship she had been working on. All things considered, she had gotten off far better than her younger counterpart. Since the wish, Trunks had been on far better behavior than he had ever been in his life, and Vegeta was no more of a handful than before. And even if Trunks had been causing damage, she had the resources to simply dismiss it and have someone else fix it.

But more than that, the conversation made her realize that she had been staying away from her family too much. To be sure, the project needed to be done, but there was a part of her that knew she was milking it for an excuse to hide. Keeping her notoriously big mouth shut about the aftermath of the wish was not an easy task for her, and it was far easier to run away to the lab than to risk pissing Vegeta off by making yet another poorly worded observation about the change. In an odd way, she found herself understanding why he had a tendency to lock himself in the gravity room when she was clearly in a bad mood.

Her formal gift to her husband was not yet done, but as she slid out of the ship and headed back to the residential part of the compound, she had an idea for how to tide things over.

Vegeta was going to love it!


	17. Chapter 17

"Okay, so who's going?"

It was a question they had been putting off for weeks on end, but they were out of time to ponder. The ship was finished and ready for launch. Everything had been gone over, checked, and rechecked. They could have left that very afternoon if they wanted to, if only that question had an answer to it.

Bulma cocked her head to the side. "Well, obviously I _have_ to go," she pointed out. "If something goes wrong and I'm not there, let's face, you guys are screwed. Is there anyone else in that category?"

"Could you stop bragging long enough for us to figure this out?" Chi-Chi snipped. "I, for one, am not being left behind. I have stayed back with nothing to do but wait and worry for too long. I'm going."

Goku's eyes grew wide as she looked over to her wife. "You mean that _I_ don't get to go?" she cried. "No! You can't have an adventure without me!"

Bulma smiled at them. "Why don't both of you go?" she asked. "It's not like me going will slow Vegeta down."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Krillen asked. "Like, say, who's going to be keeping your son from destroying the world in your absence?"

But the heiress shook her head. "I already talked Yamcha into baby-sitting. Yes, it's costing me a small fortune to get him to watch Trunks for a couple weeks, but I'm sure if the kid gets too rowdy, Piccolo will be more than happy to knock him down. I'd be happy to ask if we could throw Goten in, too."

Gohan leaned over to Videl and whispered, "There is no amount of money on this planet that could convince me to watch both Trunks and Goten for two weeks straight. I'm sorry, but my sanity is worth more than that." She earned a giggle for the comment.

"Well," Videl said, her giggle subsiding, "I, for one, am thrilled at the idea of going. I keep hearing all these amazing stories about these epic adventures all of you keep going on, and I really want to get to go on one. And before you ask, I already cleared the idea with my dad. He's not happy that I want to leave the planet, but he understood that we're all girls, so his biggest fear is nonexistent."

"What, that I'll ever get anywhere?" Gohan muttered.

"Anyway," the young woman continued on with another laugh, "count me in."

"She goes, I go," Gohan firmly stated. "And you are not ditching me with the kids. Even with super powers they're a handful. I'll hold on to the outside if I have to."

"Same goes for me!" Krillen chimed in.

Eighteen rolled her eyes. "So tell Yamcha he will have three children to look after."

Bulma wore a broad smile on her face. "So we're all going, just as suspected. If you guys are like me, you'll need a day or two to pack and make sure that the threats against your children have the opportunity to sink in. Thursday morning, at ten, be here with everything you intend to bring!"

/

Goten clung tightly to his mother. "I don't want you to go," he whimpered.

The dark haired mother knelt down and hugged her son dearly. "I know, honey," she sympathetically responded. "I'm not going to be happy not being near you, either. But it won't be for that long, and you get to spend all this time with Trunks. Won't that be fun?"

"No!" the boy pouted. "Not if you're not here."

Chi-Chi nuzzled her cheek against Goten's head. "You'll have plenty of fun," she assured. "And we'll be back before you know it."

"Yeah," Gohan chimed in. "And aren't you going to have lots of stories to tell us when we get back?"

Goten shot his older brother a harsh look. "What do you know?" he cried out. "You're leaving me, too! Why won't you let me come with you, huh? What's wrong with that?"

"Goten," Goku chimed in, "we're going to be stuck in a spaceship for a long, long time. You won't have any space to run around at all. There won't be any birds or dragons or other animals for you to play with. There won't be any grass for you to play on. You'd have to sit still a whole lot. Does that sound like fun to you?"

"Well, no," the boy admitted. "But aren't you going to have a big adventure when you get there?"

"Probably not," Gohan honestly answered. "We're planning on asking for them to collect the dragon balls, and then we're just going to fix all of this and then come straight home. See? You're not missing anything."

The child lowered his head and stood quietly for a moment before asking, "Is this part of my punishment for what I did?"

"No," all three other members of the household quickly answered. Chi-Chi hugged the boy again. "It's just like your daddy said. You wouldn't have any fun at all, and we're not going to have any adventure. You aren't going to miss anything exciting, I promise."

"Then why are all of you going?"

It was a fair question. "Well," Gohan explained, "Dad's going because he's the one that can teleport us home, and Mom's going because I'm pretty sure she's the only one who can take all of that dehydrated food and make it taste even a little bit edible."

"Then why are _you_ going?" he demanded.

Gohan paused. Was he absolutely vital to the mission? Hardly. Just as much would get accomplished without her presence as it would with her being there. The honest answer was that he wanted to go. It was as simple as that. But such an answer would easily upset her younger brother. Perhaps she should not go. Maybe it really would be best if she stayed behind and kept her younger brother company.

But Goku answered. "The wish affected Gohan, right?" she pointed out.

"Uh-huh," the child answered.

"And Gohan's going to want to help fix it, right?" she went on.

"Right."

"And it's only fair that Gohan gets to help fix it, right?" she kept going.

Goten nodded. "Well, yeah."

"And," Goten's father explained, "you really don't want to have to sit still for all those days, do you?"

"No!"

Goku grinned at her son. "So does it make sense why Gohan would go but you would stay behind?"

The young child nodded again. "Yeah," he admitted, "I guess it does make sense."

"Besides," the woman went on, "do you really want to miss what'll probably be the only chance you get for years to hang out with Trunks for that much time in a row?"

Goten grinned from ear to ear. "Nuh-uh!"

Gohan shot her father a thankful look. It seemed she would get a chance to go on the trip after all.

/

"You're not serious," Trunks said, his tone clearly portraying his doubt.

"What's not to get?" Bulma responded, picking another outfit to bring along. "We'll be gone for a couple weeks and Yamcha's going to be here to watch you, Goten, and Marron."

"Why aren't Grandma and Grandpa watching me?"

Bulma rolled her eyes. "Because it's you, Goten, and Marron. My parents might be spry for their age, but come on."

While he understood that it was a comment on how difficult he could sometimes be, Trunks could easily accept that he was not the easiest child in the world to keep up with, particularly when partnered with the others his age. He and Goten paired up were legendary, a concept the boy was proud of. Throw Marron in the mix and chaos was sure to ensue. "But you're really leaving me for that long? Like, you think that's a good idea?"

His mother shook her head, a wry smile on her face. "Which sounds like a worse idea to you, Trunks: you being left here with direct adult supervision, or you in a cooped up spaceship?"

Trunks shivered at the idea of being stuck inside that small a space for that long. "You're right," he agreed. "That would just be stupid." He quietly watched his mother continue to pack for several minutes before he spoke again. "You're sure you have to go?"

"Is that your way of saying my little boy is going to miss me?" his mother responded.

A blush quickly spread over his cheeks. "Hey, I'm not little anymore," he quietly insisted. "And it's not a big deal. I'm just making sure I know what I need to know."

"Right," his mother answered. Trunks virtually always tried to be the tough guy, behavior that was a surprise to no one. She always found such moments of embarrassed pride in her son to be adorable. It was fun to tease him on from time to time, but she had been putting the boy through an awful lot lately, and decided to let it slide. "Well, just promise me that you won't destroy the house while we're gone, will you?"

"Mom!" the little boy protested.

"What?" she asked. "It's a valid concern!"

Trunks huffed. "I'm not going to destroy the house, okay?"

"Thank you."

Trunks blew his lavender bangs out of his eyes. "Geez, you make one mistake one time…"

"One time?" his mother teased.

"MOM!"

Bulma laughed and gave her son a hug. "Aw, don't take it too hard. I know you're a tough guy and you won't miss me at all, but this is the first time I'll be away from you for a long, long time, and I'm going to miss you a lot."

"Well," Trunks mumbled, returning the hug, "I guess I might miss you. Just a little. After a while."

/

"You're leaving me with _boys_?" Marron cried.

Krillen gave the blonde girl a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Trunks and Goten are your friends," she pointed out.

"But they're _boys_!" she protested.

"Honey, you like playing with them."

"No I don't!" the child hollered. "I don't like playing with them! I don't like them at all! They're mean and they're stupid and they're dirty! They. Are. BOYS!"

Krillen frowned. "Since when did you stop liking them because they were boys?" she asked.

"Since forever!" Marron insisted.

"I don't think so," her father gently pointed out. "You\used to tell me that you liked having boys as your friends because you were the only girl, and that made you special. So why don't you like it anymore?"

Blonde pigtails flew as Marron whipped her head to the side, looking away and crossing her arms in the process. She said absolutely nothing, silently standing her ground against the interrogation. The question was asked again, and again she refused to answer, though a strict, "Hmph!" could be heard coming from her. The question was posed a third time, and the child simply turned her head further away, intent on her refusal to answer.

"Okay," Krillen sighed in defeat. "You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to." The petite woman shook her head and began to leave the room. She had not made it more than a few feet, though, before she felt the telltale pull of a child clinging to her leg.

"I don't want you to go," Marron whimpered pitifully into the jeans.

Krillen smiled sadly down at her daughter. "Oh, sweetie, I'm going to miss you a lot, too…"

"NO!" she cried out angrily, tears flying as she stomped her foot in frustration. "You aren't understanding!"

"Well," a confused Krillen responded, kneeling by the girl and putting a hand on her shoulder, "why don't you explain it to me so I can understand?"

Marron quietly looked away, tears still rolling slowly down her face. "When you come back," she softly explained, "you're not going to be a girl anymore."

Krillen paused as she really thought about what she had just been told. "Honey, is that what's bothering you?" she gently asked. "That when we're done with this I'm going to be a boy again?"

The little girl did not talk, but she did nod up and down with her face firmly pressed against her father's chest.

"Listen pumpkin," Krillen said, taking a seat and pulling the girl into her lap, "I know you've had fun with Daddy being all girly and everything, but wasn't it also nice having Daddy be, well, Daddy?"

"Maybe," she answered, her voice muffled by her father's shirt. "But I like it more when you're a girl."

"But why?"

Marron nuzzled deeper against the chest. "Because I get to teach you stuff when you're a girl," she whimpered. "And you get to learn it from me. And when I try to work with you on things like dresses and braids, you really seem to get in to it."

"Honey, I always listened to you," Krillen explained.

But Marron shook her head. "You're faking it when you're a boy."

As badly as she wished she could say that was not true, Krillen knew her daughter had a point. While she always listened as intently as she could, sometimes listening to a little girl go on and on and on about all the different types of bows she knew how to tie could be quite trying. Since the change, though, it had all become at least slightly more pertinent. It made it far easier to hold attention.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "But hey, you know what? These last few weeks have been really, really special to me, too. I've really liked having you here to help me learn how to be a girl. It's made all of this much more fun for me. And because you were so great to me, I know I'll be able to focus more than ever."

"Really?" Marron asked.

"Mm-hm. Even though I'll be a boy again," she explained, "I'll remember what it was like to be a special girl, just like you."

A very small smile came across Marron's face. "You're sure?"

Krillen smiled. "Abso-tively, poso-lutely."

Marron wiped her tears off on her father's shirt. "Well, okay. I guess it'll be okay for you to be a boy again."

"That's my girl. Thank you!"

After giving another firm hug, Marron noticed her mother standing in the doorway. "Mommy," she asked, "do you think that maybe the other mommies would want to try being boys so they can understand Trunks and Goten better, the same way Daddy understands me better?"

The normally stoic woman's mouth twitched just a little as she pictured it. The idea of Chi-Chi and Bulma as Saiyan boys…Eighteen had to turn around and walk away. If she did not clear the area soon, someone might actually hear here laugh.

/

"Daddy," Videl groaned, rolling her eyes, "we've gone over this. I'll be perfectly safe, and there will be _no boys_ on the spaceship."

Hercule did not seem appeased. "But sweet pea, you're going to be going into outer space. That's just not a safe place to be! There are aliens out there!"

"And I'll be taking several with me," she pointed out.

"Not right now they're not!" he countered. "How are they supposed to protect you?"

The young woman narrowed her icy eyes at her father. "First of all," she firmly pointed out, "I don't need protection, and you know that. And secondly, I dare you to go to Goku or Vegeta right now, as they are, and challenge either one of them to a fight. Challenge them as human women. Go ahead, I dare you."

The world champion gulped slightly at the thought. When honest with himself, he knew that they were still superior to him as fighters. His ego was big, but he had seen both of them fight, even after the change. They were still masters, and they were just as aggressive in hand to hand combat. He might have a chance, but it was a slim one at best. "Sweet pea," he explained, "you're my little girl. I want to make sure you're not in any danger. You don't know what it's like to hear that your baby is going off on something like this. I just want to protect you."

"Daddy," the teenager responded, "I told you, I don't need to be protected."

"Sweetheart," Hercule returned, "if you think it's because you're just my little girl, you're wrong. Well, that's not entirely true. Actually, that's the entire reason…"

"Dad!"

Hercule jumped a little as he tried to gather his words. Over the past few months, since Gohan had entered her life, his daughter had grown far bolder when speaking to him. She had always been a confident girl, but she used to hold her more passionate outbursts to herself. Or, from what he had heard from the chief of police and her high school principal had told him, she took them out on just about anyone who she felt earned a smack down. "What I meant to say," he clarified, "is that it's not because you're a girl. It's because you're my baby. You'll always be this precious little gem to me. And you've never gone off on an adventure before. Not one I knew about in advance, at least…"

The girl sighed. "Are you really that not okay with me going on this trip? I promise you, there's nothing to worry about. I'll be with a bunch of other people, all of them will be women, and we're going to a planet where the people are best known for being asexual and their ability to survive on only water. And the moment I'll actually be near anyone with male hormones surging through them again, I'm being teleported straight back to Earth. Really, Dad, as far as road trips your daughter _could_ be going on, this isn't that bad."

"I know," the fighter relented. "Just promise you'll call every night."

"I promise."

"And promise you won't get in to anything dangerous," he added.

"I promise."

"And promise that you'll come home safe and sound," he urged.

"I promise."

"And promise you'll eat your vegetables and brush your teeth after every meal and…"

"Dad!"

"Okay, okay." He wrapped his arms around his little girl and simply finished with, "I just want you to be safe, princess."

/

Thursday morning was there before anyone knew it. Bags had been packed, good-byes had been spoken, children had been warned to be on their absolute best behavior, and the ship was ready to sail through the stars. Their journey to once again meet up with the people of Namek was finally about to begin.

It was finally time to blast off.


	18. Chapter 18

"If I have not already told you this," Vegeta sneered, "you are an absolute moron."

Bulma rolled her eyes, not an easy feat to accomplish as she continued applying her mascara. "I'm sure you're overreacting on whatever it is that's got your panties in a twist today."

"No, the others agree with me," the princess assured. "You are a moron."

With a huff, Bulma screwed the cap back on her makeup. "Running on the absurd assumption that you're not exaggerating, what could possibly have all of you thinking that I am a moron?"

Glaring into the mirror and catching her wife's reflection. "Long trip, one bathroom, eight women, three of us are menstruating. You do the math, genius."

"Okay, there might have been _one_ oversight on my end," she snipped. "But one mistake does not make me a moron."

"Mistake number two was teaching the boy how to use the dragon ball radar," Vegeta quickly added. "Mistake number three was trying to pierce my ears. Mistake number four was trying to make me wear a thong. Mistake number five was.."

"Okay, okay, shut up already!" Bulma interrupted. "Sheesh!" She sealed up her makeup bag and recapsulized it. Not for the first time, she wondered how anyone managed to go on a long trip before capsules had been invented. "If I admit that perhaps I should have added more than one restroom, will you get off my case?"

From behind the door, Krillen hollered, "We won't!"

Irritated, the heiress got to her feet and threw the door open. "And what the hell is your problem?" she demanded.

It was with great flourish that the tiny woman produced a list. "We, the undersigned, have compiled a list of grievances that we feel need to be addressed." Dramatically she cleared her throat. "First of all, we would like to discuss the decision to put the bedrooms right next to each other."

"And what the hell is wrong with that?" Bulma shot back.

"The walls aren't soundproof," Krillen pointed out. "Gohan and Videl talk to each other through the wall that splits their rooms, Chi-Chi's eavesdropping, Goku's asking questions about what those two are talking about, Eighteen is annoyed by Goku's questions, and as our other wall is next to yours and you two seem to be, ahem, _experimenting_ with one another…"

"Next item!" the heiress demanded, wishing to change that topic quickly.

Krillen did not miss a beat. "The next issue we have is with the design of only one bathroom in the ship…"

"Yes, that's been addressed," Bulma cut the other woman off. "And if you people had such a problem with the design, why didn't you tell me when I was building the damn thing?"

"Because you were a bitch who wouldn't let anyone look at it while you were working on it," Vegeta snipped from behind her.

Bulma glared hard at her husband. "You want to be included when we wish anatomical rearrangement on you former guys, or are you happy wearing a bra for the rest of your life?"

"You wouldn't dare," the princess challenged. "You miss me being male as much as I do. Don't forget woman, you talk in your sleep."

As Bulma began to form her rebuttal, Krillen began laughing. "What does she say?"

"Never you mind!" Bulma shouted. "Sheesh, could you people show _some_ appreciation? I did build this damn ship so that you guys could be _guys_ again, after all. Now are you people going to cut me some slack, or am I turning this ship around and letting the two of you shot at Victoria's Secret for the rest of your lives?"

Krillen was quickly retreating when they heard a familiar voice whine, "Ooooowww!"

With a roll of her eyes, Bulma fully left her room. "Great. What did Goku do this time?" The three ladies entered the lift that took them from the residential floor of the ship up to the more open upper area, only to find Goku sitting on the floor, wincing and topless.

"Still haven't figured out how to work a bra?" Krillen asked, looking upon her best friend.

"I have!" Goku insisted, still pouting on the floor. "But I don't have one that lets me train!"

Sensing what her wife was going to say, Vegeta lowly growled, "Those sport tops are mine. Give them to Kakarot and you'll be sleeping on the couch for the rest of your long, miserable, sexually frustrated life."

Bulma stuck out her tongue, but she kept the request to herself. "Goku, why are you in pain and naked from the waist up?"

"I was trying to train," Goku explained, her lower lip still sticking out, "but my leg gave out from underneath me and I fell on my butt."

"Well obviously, you moron," Vegeta chided. "Your leg has not yet completely healed."

It was Bulma's turn to respond to her spouse under her breath. "Let she who has never trained in spite of absurd injury cast the first stone."

"You shut up."

The ringing of a bell informed the four women that the lift was once again depositing people to their area. "What's going on here?" Chi-Chi demanded. Bulma sidestepped, giving the other four women a full view of Goku's state, and Chi-Chi squawked. "Goku! How many times do I have to tell you, women _always_ have to wear a shirt!"

"Well that's not fair!" Goku whined.

From the back of the pack, Gohan muttered, "Agreed," which only managed to gain her a lap on the shoulder from Videl.

"Fair or not," Chi-Chi lectured, dropping to her knee and inspecting Goku's leg, "that's the rule. Gohan…" She did not even need to finish her sentence before Gohan was removing her sweatshirt and handing it over.

"Ow!" Goku hissed as her leg was moved slightly. "Why isn't it better yet?"

"Welcome to being human," Videl sympathetically answered. "We don't heal as fast."

"Well this sucks!"

Bulma helped Goku shrug into the sweatshirt as Chi-Chi sent Gohan for the first aid kit. "I know it does," she gently told her friend, "but if you don't take care of this correctly, you could end up with a leg that hurts off and on for the rest of your life."

Krillen cleared her throat before asking, "What is it with the two of you and statements involving 'the rest of your life'? Don't you guys have a shorter time period for threats?"

"No," Bulma and Vegeta answered in unison. The scientist went on to explain, "We're both stubborn little bitches. We're willing to wait a day, a week, a month, maybe over a year, to keep a threat going. And with the other one knowing it, threats of punishing the other for a limited amount of time just aren't as effective."

"I am not going to be a 'stubborn little bitch' for long," Vegeta snipped.

Bulma nodded. "You're right. You're going to be a stubborn bastard again soon enough."

"Damn straight."

Krillen smirked. "Interesting statement, given what I've been hearing through the wall…"

"Continue that statement and die painfully," Vegeta threatened.

Eighteen stepped between them, glaring coolly at the princess. "You'll never get a chance," she threatened.

"You want to bet?" Vegeta challenged back.

"Goku, sit still!" Chi-Chi scolded.

"But it hurts!" Goku whined.

"The sweatshirt zipper needs to be _up_!" Gohan called out.

"Don't get mad at her!" Bulma responded.

"Leave my boyfriend alone!" Videl demanded.

"I see no boyfriends here!" Bulma shot back.

"Leave my Gohan alone!" Chi-Chi shouted.

"You're hurting my leg!" Goku hollered.

"I will kill you where you stand," Vegeta threatened.

"You'll be dead before you try," Eighteen enforced.

And so began yet another day of their excruciating trip to get the dragon balls.

/

Videl quietly handed over the supplies Chi-Chi needed to finish cooking their dinner. It had been yet another miserable day, and no one was speaking to anyone. Even the couples were no longer communicating with one another. Dinner was either going to be painfully silent or unbearably loud, and at that moment, the teenaged girl was not sure which one she was hoping for. So far their trip had hardly been the grand adventure she had imagined it would be. In fact, it seemed one step up from torture.

Without a word Chi-Chi took the ingredients and added them, neither scolding nor thanking the girl. Her temper had officially reached its limit with the entire situation. She had fought long and hard to try to keep a stiff upper lip, but enough was enough. She had made every single meal every single day since they had taken off. It was not that the others refused to help so much as it was her refusal to let them. It was the one thing she could do in peace, and she was not going to let it out of her grasp. Her domain, her control, her territory. No one was going to take that from her.

Across the way Gohan was silently setting the table. There had been so much tension that she felt ready to snap in a moment's notice. She was fairly certain that she would be flirting with a new level of Super Saiyan just from the stress. Even without Saiyan strength, more than one piece of cutlery had been warped and wrapped in her overly tight grip.

In the open area Krillen was attempting to meditate, but could not find a peaceful place of mind no matter how hard she tried. The huffs, sniffs, and snorts everyone was making as they gave each other this so called silent treatment were worse than yelling. Yelling was easy enough to tune out because it was constantly loud. But two minutes of silence followed by an angry sniff? Boy, was that annoying. Why were they doing that? Did they not understand how obnoxious that was?

The television was on in the den, but Bulma was hardly watching it. How dare they? How dare they show an utter lack of appreciation and gratitude? She had worked her ass off in order to build a safe spaceship as fast as humanly possible. She had sacrificed her time, her money, her resources, even her hair appointments, for crying out loud! And were they happy with her? No. Were they profusely thanking her for all her work? Nope. Were they saying gee, Bulma, we never could have gotten a chance to do this if it weren't for you? Clearly that was too much to ask. Oh, but if something was not to their liking, who were they going to turn on? Her. Of course.

Vegeta continued doing push-ups in her room, fuming more with each one. Day in and day out, trapped in a confined space with people she had never been particularly thrilled with being around in the first place. And every annoying human habit that had ever existed seemed more amplified than ever in their flying prison. They were weak, pitiful, and definitely more disgusting than Vegeta would have ever imagined. And they would bitch and moan about every little thing! Could they not shut the hell up? They probably thought they were being quiet right then, but the exercising woman was more than aware of the snippy little noises, the shoulders colliding, and every other stupid thing they were doing. Damn they were annoying!

Sitting on her bed, her leg bandaged and propped up on a pillow, Goku pouted. Why was everyone being such a jerk? Not only were they all being grouchy to each other, but they did not seem to be sympathetic at all to her pain! Her leg legitimately hurt, and no one seemed to care beyond telling her to sit down and rest. Had they not met her? Did they really not understand what absolute agony she was in when _forced_ to sit still? There was a reason exercising had started after the Saiyan fight while still in a full body cast. Even meditating was difficult for the woman, but forced confinement? It was her own personal hell. And worse yet, no one wanted to spend time with her. They were all too busy being grumpy to pay her a visit. They sucked.

Eighteen read her book for what felt like the thousandth time as she soaked in the tub. With only one on the entire ship, and eight of them that needed to use it, the blonde had made a habit of taking a good long soaking before dinner. Everyone else either wanted one right before bed or right after they got up, except Vegeta, who seemed to practically live in the shower. Seriously, how big was the water bill in the Briefs household? A shower after getting up. A shower after the early morning workout. A shower after the mid-morning workout. A shower after the late morning workout. Another for the early afternoon, mid-afternoon, and late afternoon workouts, a couple more in the evening, and one before bed. Other than sweat and bathe, was there anything at all that annoying little royal did? Vegeta alone was going to drive her into a homicidal spree. The others, though, were not without their severely annoying tendencies. If she did not get off that ship soon, the walls were going to be coated in the blood of her companions.

/

Videl quietly approached Bulma, who was sitting at the controls of the ship. Three days had gone by since everyone had decided to stop speaking to one another, and the silence was driving her insane. Her entire life had been spent in noisy environments, and her system was not handling tense silence well. "Hi," she softly greeted.

"Hey," Bulma responded, her eyes never leaving the control panel.

The girl took a seat, contemplating her next step. She had figured that Bulma would be the easiest one to talk to that was not probably going to be family one day. "I don't know if I remembered to say it before," she gently spoke, "but I wanted to say thanks. You're the reason we only have to wait half the time to undo the wish, and I want to say thank you."

Bulma did not turn her head, but her eyes did shift to the young fighter. She studied the other female for a moment, trying to figure out if Videl was actually being grateful or if there was some other motive. After a moment, she decided that the girl was sincere enough. "You're welcome," she finally answered.

Videl nodded. "You know, I've always been a halfway decent science student," the fighter mentioned, "but building an entire interstellar spaceship and equipping it for the eight of us? I can't even imagine having the knowledge to do that."

"Honestly, until about fifteen years ago, I wouldn't have known how either," she confessed. "Before Vegeta came and brought new technology with him, and maybe a little chaos with the killing and all, I never would have thought that we could travel this far, let alone this fast. I was just as clueless about interstellar travel as the rest of the planet."

The girl shifted in her weight, nodding along. "I guess that's why you've gone on trips like this, but I've never heard of anyone else doing it. If you don't mind my asking, what is the reason for keeping the technology limited to this little group?"

"Never tell my husband I told you this," Bulma smirked, "but humans are way, way too stupid to handle what is out there. He's been out there, and he's told me a bit about it, and I am more than sure that if the human race got out to the parts of space that are inhabited by other races, we would get our planet exterminated so fast, we'd be a cosmic joke for centuries to come."

"That bad?" Videl asked.

"Yup."

Another nod came from the young fighter. "How much longer until we reach New Namek?"

Bulma looked over her shoulder, glancing at the signs of strained and breaking relationships. Everyone was going just a little bit crazier every single day, and the heiress knew that she was not exempt from that rule. It was getting ugly, and fast.

"Not nearly soon enough, Videl," she sighed. "Not nearly soon enough."


	19. Chapter 19

"Okay, let's just be clear on this here and now," Bulma firmly stated to her crew. "We are here to get the dragon balls, make the wish, and go home. We are not here for adventuring. We are not here to sight see. We are not here to take on intergalactic tyrants of any nature. Have I made myself quite clear?"

Though most of her companions nodded, there were a few that seemed disappointed by the announcement. "I thought there was always some sort of adventure on these trips," Videl whispered to Gohan. "That's why I really wanted to go."

"Trust me, you do not want sporadic adventuring," the taller girl replied with a roll of her eyes. "It sucks. Every time we think we're about to actually do whatever it was we wanted to get done, some bizarre twist of fate has to come along and put all of our lives in danger. Believe me when I say it is not nearly as much fun as everyone seems to think it is."

"Yes it is!" Goku pointed out. "We have a great time on our adventures!"

Gohan huffed, but she kept her composure as she pointed out, "Adventures and battles aren't the same thing, and we usually end up in battles."

Goku blinked at her offspring. "But those are fun, too."

"Not to me they're not," Gohan pointed out under her breath.

Chi-Chi groaned. "This is not the time, you two."

Videl grumbled and crossed her arms. "And she's taken the lead again," she muttered, ensuring that the other brunette did not hear her.

"Guys, let's not start this," Krillen begged.

"Like they ever listen to us," Eighteen snorted. "We're not part of _their_ group."

Krillen looked up at her wife. "We're all part of the same group," she defended.

"ENOUGH!" Bulma shouted over everyone. "In the name of all that is good and pure in this universe, hell, even in the name of all that _isn't_ good and pure in this universe, shut the hell up! We are all a team, we are working together, we are getting the dragon balls, and we are making the wish _today_ because if I have to listen to one more day of this pseudo passive aggressive bitching, so help me I'll destroy this ship here and now and kill us all just to stop it!"

The others looked at her quietly for a moment, some of them feeling bad about their behavior, others questioning how serious she might actually be about annihilating them all in the name of shutting them up. It was Bulma, after all, so they could not rule it out altogether…

It was the last hour of their journey to get to New Namek, and they were all just about ready to kill one another. In the name of self preservation, not one of them spoke for the remainder of their flight, save Bulma, who only spoke long enough to give direction for landing procedure. Tensions were as high as ever as the door opened, and each woman there was wondering who among them would be the first to snap.

"So where the hell do we begin?" Vegeta bitterly asked.

Bulma glared at her husband, but she did pull the dragon ball radar out and got it running. "Well, they're all spread out again," she sighed. There had been a part of her hoping that they had somehow caught word of their troubles again and had done the hard part of rounding them up in advance. The heiress was dying to get the journey over with and go home. Ah, home, where her bathtub was. The land of her private labs. Her place where things usually managed to work out in her favor. The location that did not contain seven other women at all times, constantly griping to her about crap that really was not her problem. Home sweet home, she missed it dearly. "Our best bet is probably to find a village and ask them if they can help us. It'll take forever if we try to do it ourselves."

No one was arguing with her over that. Eighteen was the only one who independently could make great time. Videl, of course, could fly, and Goku, Gohan, Krillen, and Vegeta had all worked hard to figure out how to do it in human form, but flight required a significantly higher percentage of their energy than it used to. They could go neither as far nor as fast as they once had, and they ran a much higher risk of losing too much in flight. Besides, Bulma's aircrafts could travel faster than those five could. But those, too, could only do so much.

"Let's see here," Bulma muttered, pressing a few buttons. She had modified her radars with some of the technology stolen from the scouters, and could now use them to locate living beings. "The nearest village is about a hundred miles west of here."

Getting a good look at the location, Vegeta immediately took to the air, and an indignant Bulma yelled, "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

The royal stopped and glared down at the women below her. "I have had to suffer you fools for too long," she growled. "If you think that I am going to get off of that blasted ship only to get in to some other craft of yours, still stuck with the seven of you, then you are an imbecile." With that she left the other behind.

Looking slightly sheepish, Goku said, "That actually sounds like a lot of fun. I'm going that way, too."

As Goku flew off, Gohan took to the air. "Wait up!"

"Hey!" Krillen called out, jumping up and taking flight. "Don't ditch me!"

"Or me!" Videl cried, chasing down the others.

Eighteen said nothing, but she, too, took to the sky and flew with the remainder of the pack.

Bulma and Chi-Chi stood there, flabbergasted. Somehow, some way, they had once again managed to get left behind as all the others had flown off. "Son of a bitch!" Bulma shouted, throwing her surprisingly resilient radar to the ground. "They did it again!"

Beside her, Chi-Chi crossed her arms and huffed. "That does it," she announced, "I am not cooking another meal for them until they teach me how to fly!"

Up in the air, moods were not fairing any better. Looking back and realizing that she was no longer alone, Vegeta hollered, "What the hell is wrong with you people?"

"Well, we wanted to fly, too!" Goku explained.

"Idiot!" the shorter woman yelled. "I am flying to get _away_ from you!"

Goku pouted. "Well, you should have said that, then!" she shouted back.

"I did!"

"No, you didn't!" Goku shook her head. "You said you didn't want to go from inside the spaceship to inside a plane. You didn't say you wanted to be alone!"

The urge to whip around and clock the other woman was almost overwhelming, and if not for the fact that she required far more concentration to maintain flight at her existing pace than she cared to admit, she probably would have. "I am saying it now!" she finally answered. "Go away!"

"Can't!" Goku pleasantly argued. "We're all going to the same place, and it doesn't make any sense for five out of the six of us to turn around and head back. Plus, now that I think about it, Bulma and Chi-Chi are probably pretty mad at us for flying without them!"

Vegeta scowled. She, too, understood that their wives were unhappy whenever they were left behind in favor of flight, but it had not been Vegeta's intention to abandon Bulma to that degree. She had honestly thought that the other seven women would stick together, and that in the long run Bulma would not be angry about it. But if anyone who had the ability to fly had chosen to use it, that just left the woman with the harpy. That certainly was not going to end well for any of them.

Right behind them, Gohan shook her head. "This was a terrible idea," she told Videl.

"Honey, lighten up a little," Videl countered. "We're finally outside, and I for one plan to enjoy it. Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Don't say that! Don't ever say that!" Krillen called out. "You have no idea how rotten our luck is! The last time we were here, we thought we were just going to a planet full of peaceful people who would help us wish our friends back to life. And do you know what happened? A lot! Gohan got a broken neck, Vegeta got shot through the chest, and I exploded! As did the planet!"

Though she knew that Krillen was talking about a legitimate concern, Videl had to fight to keep the smile off her face. The delivery had been fairly comical, and the young woman found herself more than a little amused by it. "Sorry," she snickered. "I didn't mean to bring on a curse or anything."

Eighteen rolled her eyes at the entirety of the situation. She had already formulated a worst case scenario in her head, and she already had a plan for it. Some force would come and try to kill them all. Most of the others would want to stand and fight. Eighteen would let them. Meanwhile, she planned to grab Krillen and make their way back to the ship before anyone could say anything otherwise. She had watched Bulma at the helm long enough to know that the coordinates for a return trip had already been entered into the system. All she would really have to do would be to get them strapped in and push a button. The hell with the rest of them, she and Krillen were getting out of there alive.

Unfortunately for them, a hundred miles was much, much further than they had given it credit for. And at the near brutal pace Vegeta had set, all but Eighteen found themselves running out of energy fast. They were barely more than halfway there when Krillen started to fall. It was not too far, just a falter in flight, really, but it was more than enough to let the little woman know that her limit had been reached. She landed immediately and tried to catch her breath.

Gohan, Videl and Eighteen all landed with her, checking to make sure she was alright. Goku hovered over the ground, but her feet never connected. Vegeta, though she had stopped moving forward, barely dropped low enough to watch what was going on.

"I'm okay," Krillen assured. "Just need to take a breather."

"We'll wait with you," Gohan assured. The majority of the others nodded, but Vegeta hesitated. It was finally an opportunity to break away and get some space to herself, but reality had not escaped her. Krillen might have been the first to admit it, but the rest of them were pushing their limits as well. No longer could the former Saiyan out distance a group by leaps and bounds. They were, more or less, equals. It was painful to admit, but not one of them had a power level over twenty. If she chose to continue on alone, she was almost certainly damning herself to crashing, out of strength, and completely stranded. If they were on Earth, she might have chanced it. But Namek was not nearly so familiar, and even as she contemplated it, she knew it would be a stupid thing to do. Resentfully, she landed and rested with the others.

They had not been down long when they heard the familiar roar of an engine. Bulma flew past them, dramatically swerving around so she would be facing them. "Aw, did the girls need to stop for a slumber party?" she teased.

"We're worn out," Gohan admitted. "We're not used to flying like this yet. We shouldn't have tried it."

"I'll say," Bulma muttered. "Well, hope you have a good rest!" She started up the engine again, not at all surprised to hear the other women calling out to her. "Oh, I'm sorry, do you want a lift? And here I thought none of you wanted to be cramped inside any more of my stupid machines."

Eighteen helped pull Krillen to her feet. If Bulma wanted to be a bitch about it, then the blonde would be only too happy to sink a fist into the plane's engine, rip it out, and fly off with her husband, abandoning the others to their fate. In fact, as she thought about it for a moment, the majority of her plans involved ditching the others and saving herself and her spouse. She supposed that a normal person would feel guilt over such a thing, but as someone who was hardly normal, Eighteen found herself uncaring toward it.

Vegeta glared at her wife. "It was not the _machine_ I intended to get away from," she angrily pointed out. "What I wanted was space from these clowns! But since every damn one of them decided to follow me like a damn puppy would, screw it! I'm going with you."

"You think I'll let you in that easily?" Bulma challenged.

"No," Vegeta answered, "but you are not seriously expecting me to bow out of something because of your opinions."

From inside the cockpit, Chi-Chi gave a mild snort. "It certainly never stopped you before."

Though she did glare at the woman, Vegeta chose to not verbally acknowledge the comment. Rather, she calmly approached the side of the air craft. Bulma rolled her eyes at the action. "Yeah, because I totally couldn't lock the door from in here."

"Oh, I know you could," her spouse coolly answered. "And I could do this." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small device, pressed a button, and the telltale sound of the door unlocking signaled her that entry had been permitted.

Bulma squawked and tried to lock the door again, but she had been caught off guard, and her movements were too slow. "What the hell?" she shouted. Quickly she checked her pockets, and sure enough, her remote operator was not in there. "Son of a bitch! How the hell did you get that?"

"I took it," was all the former Saiyan said, taking a seat and kicking her feet up.

"Well duh!" her wife hollered. "But _when_?"

A dismissive wave, along with the command, "Take us to the dragon ball," were the only response she got. And as Bulma continued to demand information, the others took advantage of her distracted state and climbed aboard. Many minutes of fighting passed, but eventually, it was Goku who intervened.

"Can you guys fight and fly at the same time?" she asked. "Because I'd really like to get going, if that's okay with you."

The heiress grumbled, but she did start the engine back up. She, too, wanted to get going, but for different reasons. Goku wanted to move, to accomplish something, and to maybe have some fun on the way. Bulma wanted the wish done and over with.

She was not alone in her thoughts. Just about all of her traveling companions were back on that line of thinking, and would have stayed there for quite some time had something not happened that seemed much more urgent.

Their plane was shot out of the sky.


	20. Chapter 20

The plane jolted violently as the blast ripped through it. Everyone inside instinctively grabbed for something to steady themselves with as they scrambled to figure out what was going on. Eighteen, thrown off her game slightly by the suddenness of the attack, quickly regained composure and jumped out of the vehicle to guide it to the ground. As her hands grazed the outside of the plane, her instincts told her to duck, and another beam barely missed her face. Inside, the passengers, none of whom had put on a seat belt, held on for dear life as they were launched back and forth as Eighteen fought to stabilize them.

The ordeal lasted only a few seconds, but it left most of them at least a little shaken. "Well," Bulma panted, her nerves a little frayed, "that was fun."

In the back seat, Videl, maintaining a death grip on her chair, turned to Gohan and said, "I'm starting to understand why you're not a huge fan of these adventures."

"Told you so," Gohan muttered under her breath.

Goku scurried over to the lightly warped door and forced it open. "I wonder what happened?" she mused aloud.

"We were shot at, you idiot!" Vegeta snipped.

"But on purpose?"

A familiar headache began to spread up, and Vegeta pinched the bridge of her nose to try to avoid having an aneurism over the question. "Of course it was on purpose, you moron," she grit out. "People do not shoot you out of the sky _accidentally_."

"At least not with Trunks and Goten still on Earth," Bulma muttered. But as soon as those words left her mouth, both she and Chi-Chi sat up straight, exchanged a panicked look, and bolted out of the cabin, demanding, "Where are they?"

"Where are who?" Eighteen demanded, watching the two other mothers jump outside.

Chi-Chi had her hands firmly on her hips as she replied, "Those boys! In heaven's name, I will never understand how they can be _everywhere_! Honestly, how did they even get off the Earth?"

The blonde gave the brunette an incredulous look. "They didn't," she coolly answered. "We were shot down by those guys."

All eight of them, now outside, looked over to where Eighteen was pointing. Nothing was visible, but those with the ability to sense energy could clearly detect three people hiding behind a hillside.

Vegeta's eyes narrowed. "Show yourselves!" she demanded. When no one appeared, she raised her hand, hollering, "If you do not show yourselves immediately, you will be treated as hostile and we _will_ blow you apart!"

Goku frowned slightly. She leaned over to the shorter woman and softly pointed out, "You don't actually have the power to blow that up."

A growl sounded from Vegeta's throat. "Yes, but _they_ don't know that," she hissed. "Now shut _up_!"

Sure enough, three Namekians emerged from the hill, all of them holding their hands up in a sign of surrender. "Do what you wish with us," one of them boldly stated. "Our people will not help treasure hunters who invade our lands."

Blinking in confusion, Goku responded, "Why not? You guys were so cool with helping us last time. Did we do something wrong?"

The green men, suddenly also confused, studied the group before them. Seven of the eight females were ones that they had never before laid eyes on. But a hint of blue shone through near the back of the group, and one of the Namekians changed quickly from defensive to elated. "They are of Earth!" he joyously proclaimed. "Miss Bulma, we have not seen you in so long! How have you been?"

The heiress smiled as she made her way to the front of the group. "Been better," she honestly told them. "Stuff happened, chaos ensued, you know how it goes. Oh, and I was just shot out of the sky."

All three Namekians visibly blushed. "Our sincerest apologies," the one who had spoken earlier said. "We did not know if you were an enemy force or not."

"You could have asked," Bulma pointed out.

"Once upon a time, that was our protocol," the Namekian responded. "We were a peaceful people who simply wished to be left alone. However, after the attacks from Frieza and those monsters he brought, and a handful of invaders that have come since then, we have been forced to adopt a new strategy. It goes against our nature, but it is what we must do to protect our people."

Goku wore a deep frown on her face. "You never told us that you had invaders," she softly said.

"There are always going to be invaders," Vegeta countered. "They would be fools if they were not prepared, especially considering the power of the dragon balls. That's what made them so vulnerable last time."

"But we could have helped them!" Goku fought back. "If they asked us for help, we could have helped them, just like they helped us!"

"And how do you propose they communicate with you?" the shorter woman challenged. "They do not exactly have _telephones_ here!"

Goku opened her mouth to keep fighting, but they were interrupted as the Namekian cleared his throat. "I'm sorry," he apologized, "but I do not believe we know you. Would you mind informing us how you know Miss Bulma and your connection to our people?"

Bulma rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I guess an explanation is in order. You know me, and this is Chi-Chi, Eighteen, and Videl," she responded, pointing to the respective women. "The other four are our men. Our dragon balls screwed them over, and we want to undo it." An almost wicked smirk crossed her face as she looked to the tallest of their group. "Isn't that right, Goku?"

The tall woman nodded. "Yeah," she cheerfully agreed, scratching the back of her head. "Can you help us out?"

The Namekians stared. That woman was the great Goku? The ultimate savior who had come from the heavens, vanquished their enemies, and given them a new home? The borderline divine being who has saved them all? "Oh…my…" the leader of the trio stuttered. "I'm sorry, we did not recognize you."

"Yeah, I wouldn't have either," Goku laughed. "So, what do you say? Can you help us undo this?"

"Of course! Please, allow us to guide you to the nearest village. We will plan from there."

Goku grinned broadly. "Cool!" She began to lift off the ground to take flight again, but a sharp tug on her sleeve kept her grounded. Looking aside, she noticed Chi-Chi holding on firmly.

"Oh no you don't, missy," the brunette stated. "You are not flying off without me. Not again."

Beside her, Bulma was shooting an evil glare at her own spouse. "Don't you dare think about it either," she warned. "There will be punishment if you do."

"You still owe me a _reward_ from before," the other woman sneered. "You promised you would make up for past offenses, and I am yet to receive payment on them. I hardly think that you are in any position to be threatening punishment."

"Oh, really? You want to go through a blow by blow of past offenses that haven't been compensated yet?" Bulma challenged.

Nervously, Gohan cleared her throat. "Um, guys?" she softly interrupted. "Why don't we start by heading to the village? Bulma, do you have another vehicle with you?"

The heiress rolled her eyes. "Of course I do," she stated, as though that was obvious information. "After spending enough time with you lunatics, I always make sure I'm ready for Armageddon to strike at any time. I've got cars, planes, food, water, clothing, safety devices, first aid…"

"You have the damn car, that is all we need to know," Vegeta interrupted angrily. "Now take it out and let's go!"

Bulma's blue eyes narrowed as she reached into her pocket for her capsule case. "I swear, I am going to kill you."

"Try it," the other woman challenged. "I dare you."

Before another fight could break out, Krillen popped between the warring spouses, snatched the capsule pack out of Bulma's hand, and muttered a quick, "Thank you," before pulling out what they needed. If they did not get their mission accomplished fairly soon, at least one murder was likely to take place.

/

The villagers were, to say the least, surprised by the small parade of guests that entered, escorted by their warriors. It was even more shocking to them to hear the tale of what had happened to the visitors. Many questions were asked, though most were focused on which person used to be whom. Goku, Gohan, and Krillen were all identified by name, but when they got to Vegeta, Bulma was quick to simply answer, "My husband." After all, she was not entirely convinced that if they knew who she was, she would be included in the wish.

"Well, that is quite the story," the village elder said, smiling at the group. "I must say, Goku, you and your friends have quite the gift at finding these situations."

"Yeah, and there's no refund policy on it," Eighteen muttered in the back.

Ignoring the blonde, Goku smiled and scratched her head. "Yeah, I guess we do have a lot of stuff happen to us, huh? But it always makes for great stories!"

Krillen shook her head, smiling as she did so. "Leave it to Goku to think like that."

"Yeah, great, upbeat as always," Bulma quickly butted in. "So how long is it going to take to get this done? I hate to be a bitch about this, but we left two kids with the power to destroy the world with a baby sitter who's probably been pushed so much by them that he might just let them. So yeah, I'm in a bit of a hurry."

That reminder got the rest of her companions serious in a hurry. "We're happy to help in any way we can," Gohan quickly volunteered, thinking about a somewhat unchecked Goten at home.

"Yeah, I brought my radar," Bulma pushed, Trunks on her mind.

"I just want to get this done and over with," Eighteen grumbled. She, after all, did not have a super human son with a short attention span waiting on Earth for her.

The elder nodded. "I understand your concern," he sympathetically explained, "but I am afraid we cannot send you to the others. As you have already experienced, we have become far more aggressive with our approach to handling unidentified outsiders. You will be met with the same initial hostility, and our village elders have all agreed that if it is deemed that an outsider is aggressively trying to acquire the dragon balls, they will destroy it."

Gohan frowned as she listened. "But you guys still have the password on them, right?" she asked. "Is it really necessary to outright destroy them?"

"A password cannot be proven or denied until all seven have been brought together," the elder glumly pointed out. "However, the shards of one laying at someone's feet clearly states that they will not be successful. They may not leave us in peace, and likely would not leave us alive, but it was agreed that it was better to leave them with no chance of success at all, rather than risking them resorting to torture and acquiring the password from someone. Our experiences with Frieza will not be soon forgotten."

Goku did not seem happy with that decision, but she found herself unable to argue it. The tragedies brought on by that tyrant had made everyone a little more cautious and a little less trusting. "So, do we just wait here until you guys bring them to us?"

"Yes," the elder confirmed. "I am sorry if this is an inconvenience for you."

"Aw, don't worry about it," Goku cheerfully responded. "I mean, we've already waited _this_ long to change back. What's another hour going to be?"

The elder shuffled his feet a bit and cleared his throat. "Um, Goku," he explained, "I understand that you and your friends are capable of great speed, but our people are not nearly so quick. Since we must send one of our own to each of the other villages, and wait for them to return, it will likely be at least two days before we will be able to make your desired wish."

Though Goku did not seem to mind that thought, all seven others around her either blanched or turned red with frustration. The vein on Vegeta's forehead seemed just about ready to burst, and were it not for the fact that the threat of _not_ being returned to her natural state was in the balance, she would have been using some choice words on the situation. Even with that potential disaster looming over her head, though, Vegeta was not calm. Without saying a word she turned, took to the sky, and flew away from the village.

"Oh goody," Bulma sarcastically groaned. "Another temper tantrum. This'll be fun."

"Um, shouldn't someone go after her?" Gohan nervously asked. "I mean, since outsiders are going to be treated as hostile…"

"Hey guys!" Goku interrupted, calling out to their hosts. "If she's just on the far side of that hill, that's okay, right?"

The village elder seemed confused, but eventually answered, "I believe so."

"Cool." Grinning broadly, the tall woman told the others, "See? No problems!"

"That's because you don't have to live with her," Bulma grumbled.

Gohan still did not seem convinced. "Given what we know about his, er, her _mood swings_, is it really such a great idea to leave her, well, unsupervised?"

Bulma glared at the teenager. "You want to go supervise her?" she challenged.

The teen gulped nervously and shook her head. "No," she answered.

"Didn't think so." The heiress sat down and laced her fingers behind her head. "As much as I hate to say this, and believe me, I hate this, we have to just wait and let things run their course. She'll have her little fit, like she always does, and then she'll come back here and sulk. Trust me, she's not going to do anything to jeopardize this mission. She wants this wish as badly as anyone."

Beside her, Chi-Chi flopped into a chair. "I can't believe this," she grumbled. "I thought this was supposed to be the easy part!"

"This is the easy part," Krillen explained. "In all the years we've hunted for the dragon balls, I don't think we have ever had this go so smoothly. Honestly, I'm actually kind of expecting something to blow up any minute now and for an all-out war to be declared ten feet in front of us. Then we need someone to do some grandstanding, there's got to be a power play for the dragon balls, we need an unorthodox alliance to form, and then, out of nowhere, Goku will appear and save the day." Her eyes drifted over to the tallest member of their group. "We might have a problem this time, though. I mean, when was the last time we started a disaster with you already here? And without, you know, all those crazy god-like powers of yours?"

"That would be never," Bulma sighed. "Goku has always been the powerhouse. That's why we brought him along in the first place. We wanted to have that power on our side."

Goku smiled at her friends. "Gee, and here I thought you wanted me because I was fun to be around," she laughed.

"Nope, power," Bulma answered with her own smile. "Best bodyguard we could have hoped for back then. Besides, what little human like me is going to want to go up _against_ the kid who got shot in the face and responded with 'Ow!'?"

The Namekians in the room smiled to one another. They were not strangers to either Goku's power or Bulma's somewhat blunt sense of humor. "Your relationship goes back quite a ways, doesn't it?" one of them asked with a grin.

"First in the group," Bulma answered. "When we met, I was some dumbass sixteen year old searching for a magical way to get me a boyfriend, and Goku was some dumbass kid who didn't understand that humans don't come with tails, and that electricity is not witchcraft."

Gohan raised an eyebrow at her father. "You thought electricity was witchcraft?"

"In my defense," Goku quickly responded, "I hadn't ever seen it before. Grandpa and I had never used it, and he used to tell me that things I didn't understand happened because of magic. So when it was dark outside, and Bulma turned on lights inside, I thought that meant she was using magic and she was a witch!"

"Behold, Earth's mightiest savior!" Krillen laughed. "But back to what I was saying, this is usually the point in our journeys where something goes horribly, horribly wrong. And I've got to be honest, with only one super being with us, it makes me a little nervous. I don't think we've been this low on muscle since pre-Piccolo." With a chuckle, she looked over at her wife. "Not that I think you can't handle something all on your own, sweetie!"

"Whatever," Eighteen grumbled. She was beyond bored already, and was not happy at all that they had to wait longer.

Across the room, Videl leaned up to Gohan's ear and whispered, "So, how long is this going to take?"

"Oh, good question," Gohan responded. "Hey, does anyone have a rough estimate for how long it is going to be?"

Their hosts once more exchanged glances. "It will most probably be several days," the elder explained. "At longest, a week."

"A _week_?" Chi-Chi screeched. "No, no, no! I cannot be gone another week!"

"Yeah!" Bulma chimed in. "Seriously, Trunks and Goten should not be without extreme supervision any longer than is absolutely necessary. If Yamcha has even survived this long, it's nothing short of a miracle."

The poor elder looked down. "I am sorry," he sincerely apologized. "That is how long it will take for our messengers to go out and collect what we need."

Before anyone else got a word in, Vegeta walked in, a scowl on her face. Without a word she walked over to the wall and leaned against it, refusing to socialize with anyone. But after a few seconds, it was obvious to her something was wrong. "What?" she demanded.

Bulma sighed. "Um, about how much longer we'll be here…"


	21. Chapter 21

Goku sighed as she looked up at the sky. The estimate of two to seven days to gather the dragon balls had not been as accurate as they had hoped. Nine days had come and gone, and they only had five of the orbs they needed. The first few days had gone well enough, all things considered, but each day brought more and more tension among her group. It also brought more and more boredom. In her original state, Goku would have rejoiced in the opportunity to train for days at a time without stopping, but her human form had cost her such legendary endurance. She could train for a few hours, but fatigue would set in, followed by boredom. Goku had really hoped that once everyone was outside of the spaceship, boredom would be a thing of the past. Apparently, that was not the case.

Quietly, Chi-Chi came over and sat next to her spouse. "How are you?"

"Bored and more bored," Goku sighed. "I'm too tired to keep training, I'm too tired to help with the farming, I'm too tired to do anything, but I'm not tired enough to sleep. The clouds were kind of cool when I started looking at them, but that stopped being fun about an hour ago."

The brunette shook her head. "How could you, of all people, be too tired to do anything?"

"Hey, cut me some slack!" Goku defended with a smile. "I'm human now!"

"Yeah, and so am I," her wife responded. "And so far, I really am surprised that you're so tired all the time."

The smile faded slightly. "I'm not just lying here all day. I've been training and helping out and stuff since they healed my ankle. I'm just tired _now_."

Another shake of the head. "I swear, if I didn't love you so much, I would be hitting you right now."

"Why?" Goku asked, sincerely confused.

"Because all that helping and training you've done today," she pointed out, "isn't even half of what I do every day. I'm just your little, human wife, Goku. I can't go to battle for days at a time. I can only be on my feet for about seventeen hours a day."

The color faded slightly from Goku's cheeks. "Seventeen?" she repeated, her surprise evident. "That can't possibly be right!"

"Oh, really?" Chi-Chi challenged. "I get up at four in the morning. As the water starts warming up for tea and breakfast, I start sewing all of your torn clothing together. Half an hour later, you come downstairs, tell me you're starving, and ask what's for breakfast. I get a little food ready for you, and I clean up what I used while you eat. Then you head outside, still mostly dark out, to start training. I get breakfast, round two, started by five so that when Gohan comes down at five thirty, I can have it ready for him. You come inside around six, after your 'warm up', get Goten out of bed, and we eat breakfast together. By seven in the morning I've made two meals for home, fixed an outfit, done two loads of dishes, and made Gohan's lunch for school. When Gohan takes off for his education, you and Goten go outside to play for a while. I have two to three hours to finish cleaning up from breakfast and get all of the laundry done. A little before ten, the two of you come in, and I make you something to eat. After that you start on your chores and I start giving Goten his lesson. We break at noon for lunch, then Goten gets to play for an hour while I get that load of dishes done and sweep the floors. At one thirty we resume the lesson, and continue until Gohan gets home around four. Goten takes a break with Gohan before Gohan gets started on his homework, and you are outside training. I take this opportunity to get dinner started. Goten does independent study as Gohan starts his homework, you train, and I get food ready. At six we eat, at six thirty we clean up from dinner, by seven thirty Goten is in bed and you're bathing as Gohan continues his homework and I finish the dinner clean up. After the clean-up is done, I begin to prepare Goten's lesson for the next day. Then I bathe, and try to be in bed by nine so that I can get up at four the next morning and start it all over again."

Goku's eyes were wide. She had always known that their family was on a bit of a strict schedule, and Chi-Chi had gotten fed up more than once when that schedule seemed to get broken, but to hear blow by blow what got done by their family every single day was an enormous shock. "Why didn't you ever tell me before?" she asked.

Chi-Chi rolled her eyes. "I tell you all the time," she pointed out.

"When?" Goku demanded.

"Every time I'm yelling at you to stop trying to help the birds find a new nest or that dinner's already been started, don't go fishing right now," Chi-Chi laughed. "I'm constantly telling you I'm busy. I just can't remember telling you everything in one enormous breath before."

Goku frowned. "When do you relax?"

A black eyebrow was raised as Chi-Chi looked over at her husband. "Relax?" she chuckled. "Going to Namek has been the most relaxing thing I've done in years, and that's considering the fact that I'm ready to kill most, if not all, of you right now. I take an hour to drink some tea on the weekends, and I sometimes get a chance to shop with Bulma or to just sit and talk with her for a while, but there isn't really time to do that very often. There's a lot of work to be done, Goku. You knew that."

Quietly, Goku lay back against the grass. "How do you do it?" she softly asked. "You have as much power as I have now, and I'm drained without doing half of that. How do you do it?"

Chi-Chi also lay back, snuggling against her spouse. "First of all, I'm pretty sure I could kick your butt right now," she confidently pointed out. "I might be a human woman, but I'm the strongest human woman who isn't part machine. I am a lot stronger than I look. And secondly, I have almost twenty years of practice building up to this. It was a lot simpler when we were eighteen and first married. The only person I had to take care of then was you, and other than laundry and cooking, you're fairly self-reliant."

"Hey, I can cook!" Goku defended.

Her wife giggled. "You can build a campfire and stick something over it," she countered. "So yes, if there is something that needs to be roasted over a fire, you are quite capable. But after being married to me for almost twenty years, how many times have you made me dinner that did not involve a fire?"

"Shut up, that's when."

Chi-Chi laughed. "Learned that from Krillen?" she guessed.

"Goten," Goku admitted. "And I'm pretty sure he got it from Trunks."

"Meaning he probably got it from Bulma," Chi-Chi reasoned, "who likely got it from Krillen."

With a smile, Goku said, "Wow, you're good."

"No, I'm just used to trying to figuring out the origins of certain phrases that come out of the mouths of our sons." A small scowl began to form. "I won't even tell you how easy it is to figure out what comes from Vegeta."

Goku laughed. "I've got a pretty good guess." She wrapped an arm around her wife. "I still don't know how you do it," she admitted. "How do you have the strength for it? And every single day?"

Chi-Chi shrugged slightly. "I told you," she calmly explained, "there is work that needs to be done. Your clothes don't clean and mend themselves by magic. The food does not appear on command. And I promise you, if I took a day off from cleaning the house, you and Goten would destroy it as Gohan panicked about the mess."

Goku gave her spouse a playful glare. "I am not that bad."

"Yes, you are," the wife strongly answered. "It's not that you're deliberately making a mess. It's that you're completely and totally oblivious that there _is_ a mess until it hits your ankles. Admit it, sweetie. Unless you're training or thinking about food, you kind of have a hard time focusing."

"Oh, I so do not have a hard time…ooh, shiny thing!"

Chi-Chi laughed at her husband's joke while playfully slapping her shoulder. "You're a little oblivious from time to time, but I still love you."

"I love you too, sweetie," Goku answered, nuzzling the top of her wife's head. "And I know I don't say this enough, but thank you."

"You say that all the time," the smaller woman said, closing her eyes and settling in. "You say it every time I give you food, so I basically hear it all day long."

But Goku shook her head. "No, not like that," she softly corrected. "That's saying thank you for one thing. I want to say thank you for _all_ the things you do. I had no idea it was so freaking hard, You work like there's no tomorrow, and you do it constantly. You keep everything going in that house. You take care of me and the boys, and I know we aren't all that easy. You take care of the food and the laundry. You take care of the real cleaning. You take care of the money and the bills and the farm work…everything you do is so amazing. And I just want to say thank you."

The smile on Chi-Chi's face was brighter than ever before as she contently sighed, "You are very, very welcome."

/

"Check."

Videl rolled her eyes. "If I write you one, can we stop playing this game now?"

Across from her, Gohan frowned. "I'm sorry."

"Stop apologizing!" the teenager exasperatedly told her significant other. "Geez, for a week now, every other sentence out of your mouth has been you saying that you're sorry for something!"

"I'm sorry."

It was hard to resist the urge to pull her own hair out. "Gohan, could you please, please, _please_ stop apologizing for _everything_?"

Gohan gave it serious thought for a moment before honestly answering, "Probably not. It's kind of an automatic sensation of guilt. Sor…uh, nothing."

Videl put both of her hands on her face. "I have got to break you of that habit."

The former boy bit down on the inside of her cheek, physically forcing herself to not apologize for apologizing. "Good luck with that," she finally said. "And I can make us another game."

Her arms dropping down to her sides, Videl sat back down. "Frankly, I'm impressed that you built an entire chess set in two days. I can't build anything."

"It's pretty basic," Gohan humbly responded. "When I was younger, I would do some basic wood carving to try to focus myself. I was, well, a little moody when I entered my teen years. Stuff like this was therapeutic for me."

Videl frowned. "You never told me that before."

With a shrug, Gohan picked up a rook. "When would have been a good time for that?" she asked.

"Good point," Videl conceded. Compared to the other couples on the trip, their relationship was quite new. They had not known each other for all that long, and painful moments of childhood had barely been talked about. "What made you choose wood carving?"

A soft smile formed on Gohan's face. "My grandfather taught me," she answered as she remembered. "I actually learned the basics when I was about six when we were waiting for Dad to come back from space. I took a break after he came home, since the day he got back was the day we found out the androids were going to come and theoretically slaughter us all."

"That's Eighteen, right?" Videl asked, making sure she was remembering past stories correctly. "I mean, that's how she came to the group? As one of them?"

Gohan nodded. "Yeah. So since we were going up against something more powerful than a Super Saiyan, we all kind of stopped everything else going on in our lives to get ready for that. Except Vegeta and Bulma, who apparently picked up a new hobby and that's how we got Trunks." As Videl giggled, Gohan put the rook back down. "Anyway, I really didn't do anything but train and occasionally study for those years. Then the fight came and Dad…" Her eyes closed, and Gohan's hand fisted in her lap. "It was rough. Mom was pregnant. Dad was dead, and I still think it was largely my fault. And I found myself hitting puberty very hard very quickly. So yeah, I had some issues."

Videl stayed quiet, not entirely sure how to react. She had been aware of Goku's death and when Goten had come about, but she had never seen Gohan react in such a troubled way to it before.

But the look on Gohan's face shifted from upset to somewhat happy as she looked back at the chess board. "But like I said, I started carving again as a kind of therapy, and it really helped. This concludes our lecture on why I could build a chess board." With a flick of a finger, she knocked over her king. "However, we have been playing a lot lately, so we can definitely take a break if you want to."

"Please and thank you," the girlfriend quickly answered. "Sorry, but losing to you seventeen times in a row just loses its appeal after a while." Gohan opened her mouth to speak, but Videl rushed around the table quickly and planted a hand over the taller girl's mouth. "No apologizing! I mean it!" A mumble came from beneath her hand, and Videl sighed. "You just said 'sorry', didn't you?"

Sheepishly, Gohan shrugged and nodded. When the hand came down, she said, "Force of habit, remember?"

"So help me Gohan Son, I will break you of that habit," Videl swore.

"Good luck with that." Gohan stretched as she stood up. "Want to go for a walk?"

Videl smiled and grabbed Gohan's hand. "Now _that_ sounds like fun." As they walked the perimeter of the village, Videl asked, "Are you excited about getting this wish made?"

"You have no idea," the tall girl answered. "It has been downright creepy being in a body that isn't mine at all. I miss being able to be me."

"It wasn't all terrible," Videl tried to say. "I mean, the entire time hasn't sucked."

"A lot of it has," Gohan countered. "I've completely lost who I was these last few months. Everything from the basic mechanics of how my body works to the way I get treated when I go to the grocery store has just changed so radically."

With a smirk, Videl squeezed Gohan's hand. "It's the price you pay for being a hot chick," she playfully told her. "Face it, you're tall, leggy, and gorgeous. Of course guys are going to hit on you. Hell, I'm surprised more _women_ didn't hit on you. You really are that beautiful. Even though you're a full on human right now, you still apparently have Saiyan cheekbones."

"Well, I still don't like it," Gohan said. "It's like I've been treated like less of a person. I used to do errands for Mom and if someone said something to me it was just a greeting or asking how Mom and Goten were doing. Now, though…"

"Gohan," Videl interrupted, "I don't doubt that you had guys hitting on you and that it weirded you out. I know that if I was turned into a guy and suddenly had girls hitting on me, I'd probably feel the same way. But before you go too far down this road, I feel that it's important to point out that people hit on you when you were a boy."

Gohan frowned. "Yeah, you did."

But her girlfriend shook her head. "No, not just me. About a quarter of the girls at our school did. You just didn't notice before."

Rolling her eyes, Gohan said, "You are definitely exaggerating."

"You're right," her girlfriend pointed out. "After all, what could possibly be so attractive about a guy who's tall, brilliant, gorgeous, and unbelievably nice to everyone around him?" It was with a little laugh that she said, "Face it, you were everything most girls wanted in a boyfriend. You were pursued _a lot_. You just weren't aware of it because you weren't used to being around girls who weren't either your mother or Bulma. Although from what you've told me about Bulma on that spaceship, I'm surprised you know so little about women."

"Knowing Bulma is hardly an education on women as a whole," Gohan mentioned with an amused snort. "She's a little…different."

Videl laughed. "No fooling. Don't get me wrong, I really like and admire her, but…"

"She's nuts?"

"Yep."

With a tired sigh, Gohan gave her girlfriend's hand a gentle squeeze. "You have no idea. But then again, I don't suppose that any of us are particularly normal."

"Yeah," Videl sighed, "but knowing what's considered normal and knowing what you, your friends and your family are, is normal really something that you want to be?"

"It was," Gohan admitted. "You have no idea how badly I wanted it. I wanted to be a normal kid. I wanted to do normal things. I wanted a life where the biggest problems I dealt with were fighting over curfew and what I was going to do with my friends over the weekends. I wanted so, so badly to be able to walk into a room of people my own age and to be able to relate to them on any level at all. And I've got to be honest with you, there is a very large part of me that still wants that."

Quietly the smaller teenager listened.

"I know that I can do all these things that most people would see as amazing," she went on, "but it's hard. You know as well as I do that I really can't let people know the majority of what I can do. Cool as my skills might be, I'm still a freak."

"You are not a freak," Videl quickly defended. "I never want you to feel like you are."

"But I am, aren't I?" Gohan challenged. "I'm half alien, Videl. I fly, I have huge power, I eat more food than the average _family_…I am so far from normal that I can't even fake it."

Tenderly, Videl cupped Gohan's face. "You listen to me, Gohan Son," she firmly told him. "You aren't normal. You're right about that. But the things that you think make you a freak are actually that things that make you amazing. And I am not talking about the ability to vaporize large amounts of terrain at will or flying well beyond Mach three. I'm talking about who you are deep down. You're different because you see the world differently. You have seen the world stand on the brink of annihilation more than a handful of times. It's impossible to think something like the social lives of high schoolers even compares. So no, you don't know the ins and outs of blending in with average people. That's because you aren't average. You're not even above average. You are _beyond_ it all. You are not a freak, Gohan. You're amazing."

Gohan looked down. "It's hard to think I'm not a freak when I look at what I'm going through right now."

"Aargh!" Videl called out. "I am so sick of listening to you complain about this! Yes, it sucks, but it's only a couple of damn days until it all goes back to normal!" When Gohan moped slightly and looked away, she added, "If I promise to let you get to second base after this is over, will you promise to stop complaining about it for the duration of this curse?"

Not another complaint was spoken.


	22. Chapter 22

Bulma sighed dramatically as she flopped backwards onto her bed. "You know," she groaned, "this trip to Namek sucks just as much as the last one did."

From across the room, Vegeta snorted. "Speak for yourself."

The heiress cringed slightly as the thought about what her husband was saying. While Bulma had found her own experiences on the original Namek to be unbearably stressful, she could easily admit that her trials had been far easier than the battle, torture, and horrible execution her husband had suffered. Normally she was more mindful of certain topics around her spouse. However, ever since that accidental wish, things had been a far cry from right. "Are you going to keep training this afternoon?" she asked, avoiding the issue.

"Have you not met me?" the brunette snipped back. "Of course I am!"

Automatically Bulma opened her mouth, preparing to snap back, but she managed to catch herself in time. The longer they had to wait for the wish, the angrier everyone, including herself, had become. In recent days she and her husband had spent most, if not all, of their time in one of the Capsule houses she had brought. There had been enough of those for each couple to have one, but the scientist found herself wishing from time to time that she had brought one for each individual person.

"Well," she sighed, sprawling back on the bed, "let's look on the bright side: at least I haven't gotten a phone call from Earth yet about how our son has decided to destroy the planet."

Her back still to the blue haired woman, Vegeta smirked slightly. "That does not mean it is not happening. It just means that you have not checked the phone."

"Oh for crying out loud!" Bulma responded. "You're actually _hoping_ that he does something, aren't you?"

"Perhaps."

With a roll of her eyes, Bulma sat up. "Just because I have this sick fascination with how your twisted mind works, would you indulge me and tell me _why_ you want our son to wreak havoc on the Earth?"

Finally turning around, Vegeta gave her best imitation of an innocent expression. "What?" she said. "Is it not a good thing for him to take initiative?"

Bulma groaned. "You're insane."

"And yet," Vegeta countered, "you thought that it was a wise decision to legally declare me your partner for life. So truly, who is the least sane among us?"

"Yeah, I'm still going with _you_ on that one," Bulma responded. "Now is there any way I can persuade you into taking an afternoon off of training and just hanging out with me? I know it goes against everything you stand for, but if you don't, I think I'm going to snap. And by snap, I mean _completely_ snap. We're talking writing on the walls in other people's blood kind of snapped. So I am asking you, in the name of not slaughtering our hosts and thus getting our wish privileges revoked, please, oh please, don't train for this afternoon. I need company."

Vegeta rolled her eyes. "Did it ever dawn on you that watching you paint the walls with blood might just be something I find entertaining, not disturbing?"

"Would you think the same thing if the blood I was using was yours?"

"Maybe."

Bulma threw her arms up in the air. "You're impossible!"

"And I point out again," Vegeta calmly stated, "that is was your idea to marry me."

The heiress flopped back once again. "I hate you."

"I know."

"Look," she tried again, "could you just do me this one favor? They think they'll have the dragon balls and be able to make the wish by the end of the day. Then you'll all be back to normal, Goku will pop us home, and we can all pick up right where we left off. All I am asking is that you spend a few hours doing stuff with me instead of training."

Marching over to her wife, Vegeta grabbed the heiress and hauled her to her feet. "Come on."

On autopilot, Bulma began trying to free herself. "What the hell are you doing?"

"You want to spend the afternoon with me?" Vegeta challenged. "Then you're training with me. Now haul ass, we're burning daylight."

Bulma smirked. "They don't really have night here."

"Ten seconds from ditching you, woman."

With a laugh, Bulma nodded. "Okay, okay, I get it. But, and this may sound like an obvious statement, you know I don't know anything about training, right?"

Vegeta groaned. "Yes, woman, I am well aware of that."

"So?"

"So you better pay close attention when I show you how to do something," she firmly said, "because I will not be going slowly and I will not be repeating myself. And I will not be sympathetic in the least when you realize you are in over your head and hurt yourself."

Bulma grinned. Vegeta offering to share training time, let alone offering to take the time to teach her anything, could likely be a once in a lifetime opportunity. It was an experience the heiress would never miss.

/

Krillen walked by Videl and Gohan. "Who's winning?"

"Shut up," Videl quickly snapped.

The short woman winced. "That would be Gohan, then?"

"No," Gohan calmly explained. "Videl is currently in control of the board and is doing very well."

"Because you're letting me win!" the light eyed fighter retaliated. "I told you, stop treating me like I don't know what I'm doing!"

Krillen had removed herself from the conversation before anything else happened. She had learned the hard way, on multiple occasions, that when a couple began to fight, the best strategy was to get as far away as possible as quickly as a human could. "Okay," she said to herself, "let's find a new way to keep from going crazy."

"I thought talking to yourself was a pretty good indicator that you were already there."

It was difficult for Krillen to suppress her groan. She knew that her wife was only trying to cure her own boredom, and she knew that as a caring and loving spouse, it would be expected of her to provide some form of entertainment. However, after all those days and nights without any space, the blonde was just about the last person Krillen wanted to see. If ever something was going to put strain on their relationship, it was that trip. But there was no polite way to turn her away, so Krillen forced a smile on her face and turned around. "Touché," she responded.

Eighteen approached, her arms defensively over her chest. She, too, could barely stand the strain of constant companionship. Given the choice, she would just as soon have taken the spaceship back toward Earth on her own and enjoyed some private time. After all, as soon as the wish was made, Goku would once again be able to teleport. The rest of the group would beat her back easily, and she could finally have some alone time. The only thing really stopping her was the knowledge that if she did that, it would take even longer to get home to her daughter.

Not that it wasn't still tempting…

"The last group is closing in," the cool blonde informed her spouse. "They should be here within the hour."

"Wait, what?" Krillen asked, blinking dramatically.

"The last group," Eighteen repeated, "should be arriving in our camp within about an hour. My sensors have been tracking them. If they maintain their current pace and do not encounter any interruptions, they should be here in fifty-seven minutes."

The whoop that escaped the tiny woman was about as far from ladylike as she could get, but Krillen did not care. In less than an hour, she could be herself again. Her own body, her own voice, her own power, her own gender, her own _everything_ was about to be given back. Needless to say, her loud celebration drew the attention of the others, who rushed over to her.

"What's going on?" Gohan asked.

"One hour, kid!" Krillen enthusiastically shouted. "One last hour, and then I'm _back_, baby!"

The excitement was contagious. No matter how bad a mood each woman had been in just moments earlier, every single one of them suddenly felt new energy coursing through them. Finally and at last, they were going to set everything right.

Videl laughed. "Wait, isn't this the part where everything goes terribly wrong?" she teased. She barely had the time to block the flurry of objects suddenly launched at her head. "Hey! Stop it!"

"You never, _ever_ say that!" Krillen hollered, tossing yet another thing at the young fighter.

"Why?" Videl asked.

"It's called tempting fate," Chi-Chi explained.

"And let's face it," Bulma added, approaching the others with drops of sweat flying off her chin, "fate just _loves_ to screw us over. Seriously, us. This particular band of people. Cursed are we. Damned from the start. Hell, why we bother trying to even attempt to do things that makes sense is almost nonsensical."

Goku giggled. "Hey Bulma, you're starting to sound like Krillen."

Bulma growled and glared at her oldest friend. "So help me, I will kill you."

"See, now you're Vegeta!"

Bulma rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I swear, as soon as we get back to Earth, I'm not going to talk to you for a very, very long time."

"Who cares?" Krillen crowed. "We're turning back to normal!"

With a mild shrug of one shoulder, Gohan whispered to Videl, "How normal were we before all this, really?"

Videl giggled. "How honest do you want this answer to be?"

"How honest do you want your honesty?" the taller girl shot back.

"How long do we have to wait now?" Goku asked.

The others looked to Eighteen, who rolled her eyes and said, "Fifty-four of the longest minutes of my life."

Goku tilted her head to the side and pondered, "Are there some minutes that are longer than others?"

The entire group groaned.

/

"Has anyone seen my spouse?" Bulma asked, pushing her way through her friends.

Gohan nodded. "Yeah, he, uh, she…that person…is in the ship right now. I was informed that said person was planning to remain there until after the wish was made, just in case, and I quote, 'You imbecilic lunatics maintain your glorious track record and manage to screw this up royally.'."

Chi-Chi shook her head. "As ever, she is the soul of tact."

With a frown, the heiress said, "I was really hoping to be there when she got changed back."

"So go to the ship," her blonde friend told her, her tones implying that the heiress was less than intelligent.

Bulma shot the cyborg a dirty look. "Yes," she snipped, "I had figured that one out. Thank you, oh great master of the obvious."

Eighteen rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

Shaking her head, Bulma sighed. "I guess I really don't need to see the dragon again," she admitted. "I mean, it's always awesome, but I think I've seen him more than anyone else here."

"But isn't this a different dragon?" Gohan asked. "I mean, these dragon balls have a different creator than the ones we normally use. Doesn't that mean that…" She tried to finish her thought, but the hand clamped down on her mouth stopped her very efficiently.

"No worries, Bulma," Krillen laughed, finishing her job of pulling Gohan down, "I'm sure you're not missing anything new. And if anything happens, we'll fill you in."

The scientist gave a soft smile. "You promise?"

"You think we could shut Goku up?"

"Hey!" Goku whined. "I can keep something to myself when I have to! I kept the whole Trunks thing from you guys for years!"

Bulma rolled her eyes. "If I recall correctly," she pointed out, "ten minutes after finding out about that, you were telling me that you hoped I had a healthy baby."

"Yeah," the tallest woman defended, "but I didn't say with _who_, did I?"

Confused, Videl softly asked her partner, "Um, what are they talking about?"

Gohan groaned. "It's a long story."

"But you're going to tell me, right?" the bright eyed fighter pushed.

"Videl," Gohan responded, letting out a long, slow breath, "I have a feeling I am going to be trying to explain our group's insanity for the rest of my life."

Videl smiled as she leaned against Gohan's taller body. "Hey, there's no rush. I'll be around that long."

Gohan's cheeks turned red, and somehow managed to go even deeper in color as several members of the group started to make hooting noises. She sheepishly scratched the back of her head. "Uh, thanks," she finally responded.

"Well, if we're done taunting Gohan," Bulma laughed, "I think I'm going to head over to her royal highness. After all, we've got a wish to make!" She turned to leave, but hesitated slightly. "We are done taunting Gohan, right? Because I'll stick around if…"

"Go!" Gohan cried.

The heiress laughed and waved as she headed back to the ship. She had not been lying when she had said that she wanted to see the dragon again, but it was probably for the best that Vegeta stayed out of sight with the transformation. After all, many of the citizens of New Namek still held a grudge against the prince for his actions on their former home world. And even though she was curious about the concept of a new dragon, she would have been lying if she claimed she did not want to watch her husband change back with her own eyes.

Eighteen turned her head and looked to the sky. "Last one's here," she coolly said.

The other five women cheered triumphantly as a very tired Namekian landed, the enormous orange orb in his hand. Gasping for air, the green man handed over the treasured prize. Quickly they gathered with the local villagers, all excited at being able to see the powerful magic at work.

They remained silent as the village elder spoke the password and brought the dragon out. No matter how many times they saw the mystical beasts, the dragons always inspired a sense of awe from onlookers. With a deep, thundering voice, the enormous creature demanded to know what the mortals wanted.

The elder turned to his guests. "How would you like me to put this?" he kindly asked.

The six women exchanged a glance. "Um, shouldn't it just be to undo the last wish made by the Earth's dragon balls?" Krillen asked.

"Seems good to me!" Goku quickly answered.

"I can't find anything wrong with it," Gohan chimed in. The others all nodded, agreeing that it seemed to be fine phrasing.

With a smile, the elder turned back and voiced the chosen words. A hum filled the air as the spell was cast, and everyone closed their eyes for a moment as a bright light flashed.

"How are you guys not blind yet?" Videl muttered, trying to blink away the flashing spots in her eyes. "I mean, how many times have you looked directly at this?" Oddly enough, though, no one answered. "Guys?" she asked, looking up. Her cheeks immediately turned red when she did.

The three standing near her who had been affected by wish had, in fact, turned back to their natural forms. They had not, however, been wearing clothing quite large enough for those bodies, and had virtually shredded their clothes entirely. "Oh my…"

"Don't look!" Gohan hollered, trying to keep himself covered as best he could.

Krillen, who had kept his clothes intact slightly better than the others, looked over at the Sons. "Oh, please tell me someone here packed guy pants."

As father and son both looked sheepish, Videl walked over by Chi-Chi and quietly asked, "Is it just me, or is this a lot like how we found them after the last wish?"

"You mean barely modest with Gohan dying from it and Goku somewhat oblivious to it?" Chi-Chi sighed. "Yes. Yes it is." The teenaged girl, her cheeks still slightly flushed, giggled as the mother rolled her eyes. "Goku, Gohan, it's fine. There's plenty of material in the ship and I brought my sewing kit. You can wear pants made from sheets and curtains for a few minutes. You can wear the ones I'm not turning to fabric until then."

"You'll be needing these, then."

They whipped around and found Bulma standing there, her arms extended as she offered bedding. "Figured you might need these."

"How?" Krillen asked as he and Gohan snatched the cloths and wrapped them around themselves.

Bulma smirked as Chi-Chi also grabbed a sheet and tied it around Goku's waist with her own hands. "You know how Vegeta was hiding in the ship for the wish?" she chuckled. "He was in there because he got dressed in his old clothes before the wish, and it looked a little ridiculous, especially as a fairly stacked chick without a bra on. Plus, before the wish the only way to keep those pants on was to stay lying down. It looked stupid before the wish." Her smirk got a little more evil. "Not nearly as stupid as you look after it, though."

"Eh, it's not that bad," Goku casually dismissed. "Come on, we're all covered up and we don't really need to stick around for pants. Let's get everyone together and go home!"


End file.
